Daughter of Lilith
by ThunderStorm18
Summary: Sarah Haven is a regular, until her genetics kick in. She doesn't realize who she really is. A visit from Felix explains everything or so she thinks, but it's her adoptive family that keeps her sane. "Felix called her "princess", she thought it was a pet name. She opens up to Artemis & Batman. The team gives her a "normal" life. At age 13 her life is altered.
1. Electric

**This is to test an idea I had. It's tentative, so tell me what you think.**

"Mama?" A girl with blonde hair midway down her back peeked her face around a door, her green eyes blinked to adjust to the light.

"Sarah? Why aren't you in bed?" A woman with dark chocolate hair and eyes looked up from the desk she was sitting at.

"I'm sorry, Mama. I know you're busy but, my back itches."

"And you can't reach it." The woman took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes and motioned for the girl to come closer. Absentmindedly she began to rub the girl's shoulder blades with one hand as she used the other to continue her work. She jumped when she heard Sarah give an earsplitting scream of pain. The chair was knocked over as she turned to see what was wrong. "Sarah, what's wrong?" The woman watched as Sarah's pj shirt was ripped through by a pair of wings, soaked in blood. She stumbled back, to avoid getting hit with them, she tripped over the chair and fell.

"Mama!" Sarah turned to watch her mother fall and hit her head on the floor. "Mama!" Sarah shook the woman, but to no avail. Sarah then tried to turn and see what had caused her such pain. She could only get glimpses so she left her mother and viewed herself in the mirror of the bathroom. She saw the blood soaked feathers and turned pale. So scared the girl was that she ran out of the apartment and into the streets.

Sarah collapsed on the sidewalk, she looked over her shoulder and saw that wings were still there. She realized that she couldn't run from it. She shook from the exertion of the run, she took in her surroundings, warehouses were on either side of the street. She gulped as she realized how much danger she was in. Her breathing hitched as she swung into the nearest warehouse. She flattened herself, as much as she could, against the cold concrete. She looked up from her feet and saw a group of sketchy looking men huddled around. One looked up at her, she froze, his eyes traced her small wings.

"Grab her."

Sarah let out a squeak and tried for the door, which was blocked by a burly man in a flannel shirt and jeans. She backed away as she saw him swing, but couldn't avoid the blow to her temple.

Sarah blinked slowly as she sat up, she sat in a cage. She reached out to touch the bars and received an electric shock. Sarah screamed as she felt the charge run through her body and her wings rip through her skin again. She arched her back and breathed deeply as she felt her wings retract. She turned at the sound of laughter, the man who had given the order to 'grab her' stood by a window. The light from the window cast him in shadow.

"You will be an excellent play thing." He came closer to the cage, Sarah could see his face clearly. He had a square face, jet black hair, green eyes, and sharp facial features. He was holding a rod, he put it between the bars and jabbed her in the ribs. A jolt of electricity shot through her and she felt her wings come out. The man chuckled and left the room.

~ 1 year later ~

Sarah studied the lock on the cage, she had it memorized and knew what the key would look like. She startled as the man got up from his desk, he walked up to the cage, grinning his evil grin. Sarah's eyes locked on his key ring hanging from his belt. He prodded her with the electric rod, as she gritted her teeth and refused to voice her pain, she latched onto his keys. She put her hands back behind her and leaned on them as if to catch her breath. Her wings beat the air slightly, "Good bye girly."

Sarah waited an hour before she found the key she needed, she stuck it in the lock and turned it. All the while she endured the constant electric current. The lock snapped open and she hesitantly slipped out of the cage. She made a B line for the window, luckily on the ground floor, she pushed it open and climbed out. She had heard train whistles for the past year and knew where to go. She stuck to the shadowy allies and found herself in the train yard. She saw that a train was ready to leave. She looked behind her and saw her wings were out. She took a deep breath and willed them back in. Then she slipped aboard a car, in the shadows she saw there was a bed and boxes in the corner. She shifted the boxes to make a cave for her to sit in.

~next morning~

Sarah woke to find that she had been moved to the bed. She bolted up and looked around, light was coming through the window, the train was still moving.

"Morning." A man was sitting on a bench.

Sarah shoved herself in the corner and pulled her knees close.

"Now, now. No one is going to hurt you." The man hadn't moved. "I'm Jack. What's your name?"

"Sarah."

"How old are you?"

"Eight, I think."

"Where did you come from?"

"I'm not going back." Sarah's voice rose to a squeak.

"No one is going to force you to do anything you don't want."

Sarah peeked at her back and saw that her wings were not there. "Can I stay?"

"We move around a lot, you'll need to pull your weight."

Sarah nodded slowly, "Okay."

"Then welcome to Haley's circus." The man spread his arms out wide.


	2. Names

**Thank you for the reviews.**

"Where are we going?" Sarah loosened her grip on her knees.

"Star City."

Sarah nodded, she didn't know where that was, but she hoped that it was far enough that the men wouldn't come looking for her.

Jack took in her dirty and torn clothes, "let's get you some new clothes". Jack held out a hand, Sarah gently took his hand and followed him out into the hallway. Just two cars down, Jack stopped outside of a door. Sarah could hear laughter from inside.

"Dad, put me down." Choked laughter came through the door.

Jack knocked twice on the door. A woman with brown hair opened the door, she wore a green leotard with sweatpants. "Jack." She smiled then looked at Sarah. "Who is this?" She knelt and offered a hand to Sarah. Sarah looked over the woman's shoulder to look into the car. A man, dressed the same, with darker brown hair held a boy over his shoulder, tickling him.

"This is Sarah, she climbed aboard last night. Would you be able to loan her some clean clothes?"

"What's going on?" The man came to the door and set the boy down in front of his mother.

The woman put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Will you get some clean clothes for Sarah?"

"Sure." The boy tossed his black hair out of his eyes and motioned for Sarah to follow him into the room. Sarah glanced back to see the adults closing the door, so they were in the hallway. "Here."

Sarah jumped as a t-shirt and a pair of jeans flew at her.

"Sorry." The boy quickly picked them up and handed to them.

Sarah nodded and glanced around.

"The other door is the bathroom." The boy walked over and opened the door for her. Sarah slipped inside. She stripped her clothes and balled them up in the trash can. Then she pulled on the jeans, she used the bathroom mirror to look at her back. Her skin was smooth as if it had never been cut, she shuddered and pulled the t-shirt over her head. She turned and struggled with the door knob, then she felt someone mess with it on the other side. A wave of panic hit her, then the door creaked open. "Were you trying to open it?" Sarah took the door and yanked it open all the way. The boy stumbled into the door frame. He looked at her with a grin, "The knob sticks sometimes." He pushed his black hair off his forehead. "Mom & Dad are done talking to Jack." He motioned to the other open door. Sarah slipped past him and walked up to Jack.

"Sarah, you'll stay here. They'll take care of you." Jack put a hand on her shoulder and withdrew it quickly when he saw her tense. "We'll be in Star City by the evening." Jack looked up at the other adults.

"I'll get her some things tonight then." The woman smiled at Jack as he left.

Sarah looked at the door as it clicked shut. She crossed her arms and looked up at the adults. The woman motioned Sarah to a chair. "I'll brush your hair." Sarah started for the chair as the woman entered the bathroom.

"Back to work." The man ruffled the boy's hair. The boy grunted and picked up a textbook that was lying on a bed. The man settled next to him and helped him with the school work. The woman came out and started to work on Sarah's tangled hair. All of them sat in silence, Sarah stared out the window, watching the world pass by until she couldn't stand the question that was pestering her.

"What are your names?"

They all looked up at her, she hadn't spoken till then, "Of course." The woman said as she came around to kneel next to Sarah. "My name is Mary Grayson, my husband is John Grayson, & our son is Richard Grayson."


	3. Acrobatics

~ next morning ~

Sarah sat on the bleachers watching everyone get ready for the show the next night. Jack had told her to watch and observe before she started to help. Sarah glanced down at the clipboard in her lap, several worksheets were in the clasp. Mary had given them to her to see where she was in school. Sarah solved a few math problems then glanced up, she saw Mary and John hanging from the trapeze. She wondered what it would be like up there.

"Hey."

Sarah looked and saw Richard climbing the bleachers to her. "Hi, Richard."

The boy made a face. "Call me Dick, only Mom & Dad call me Richard."

Sarah nodded and watched him sit down.

"Did you look at what Mom got you last night?"

Sarah shrugged.

"Is it always hard to get you to talk?"

"Sorry." Sarah shrugged. "The past year." Sarah's voice faltered. "I haven't really talked at all."

"Oh." They both fell silent, Dick watched the adults set up as Sarah went back to her papers. "Do you want to learn some acrobatics?"

"What?" Sarah looked up from the papers. "I didn't hear you."

"I said do you want to learn some acrobatics?"

Sarah gestured to her clipboard. "But Mary wants me to do this."

"Do it tonight." Dick stood up. "It'll be fine."

Sarah stood up, "Okay, but let me put this in the train car."

Dick nodded and they made their way to the car.

Sarah set the papers on her bed and turned to Dick.

"Put these on." Dick had pulled a leotard and leggings out of the bags that Mary had brought in. Sarah took the stack and took them into the bathroom, before she poked her head back out.

"Do the leggings go under?"

"Yes." Dick glanced up from a textbook he had begun to flip through.

Sarah closed the door and got dressed, then she tied her hair into a hair tie. "Okay." Sarah stepped out of the bathroom.

"Let's go." Dick jumped up, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the tent.

Backstage some mats were laid out on the ground. Dick began to teach Sarah the basics, summersaults, handstands, and backflips.

~ 3hrs. later~

"Omph." Sarah landed on her back, her hair band snapped and her hair spread out on the mat.

Dick stood next to her, he looked down. "You almost had it."

Sarah concentrated on getting her breathing back to normal.

"Let's do it again." Dick took a step back as Sarah's eyes narrowed at him. "If you want to take a break that's fine."

Sarah propped herself up on her elbows when she heard a laugh. John and Mary stood at the end of the mat. "Just because you've been doing this since you were five, doesn't mean Sarah can get it in three hours." Sarah appreciated John's words.

"How about we go out for some lunch?" Mary held out a hand to Sarah to help her up.

"Yes." Dick pumped his fist into the air.

"Let's get changed." Mary and Sarah started walking toward the train car. "Sarah, why are you limping?"

"It's nothing." Sarah took her weight off of her ankle. "It only hurts a little bit."

Mary motioned for Sarah to sit on the bed before she knelt to inspect the ankle. Sarah let out a hiss of pain as Mary touched the joint. "Richard did you know that Sarah had sprained her ankle?"

Dick came over and looked at the ankle. "She had landed funny, but insisted it was fine."

"Richard." John crossed his arms and looked down at the boy. "Even so, you should have insisted on getting it checked before she continued.

Dick hung his head. "It's okay." Sarah reached out and gently touched his shoulder. He looked up and gave her a small smile.

"Can we still go out for lunch?" Dick both looked hopefully at Mary and John.

"We shouldn't, not with Sarah's ankle. She shouldn't put weight on it." Mary wrapped Sarah's ankle and propped it up on some pillows. Sarah watched Dick's face fall.

"I'm not hungry. You guys go, I'll stay here."

"Are you sure?" Mary put a hand on Sarah's knee.

"I'll be fine." Sarah smiled and waved them out.

When they were gone Sarah's stomach growled, she looked down at it. "Oh, shut up." Sarah looked out the window, she began to space out.

"_Sarah, what do you want to be when you grow up?"_ Sarah flinched and glanced around her. Then she remembered a scrap of memory. The kindergarten teacher had been asking everyone what they wanted to be.

"What do I want to be?" Sarah murmured to herself as she fiddled with the sheets on the bed. She had never known what she had wanted to be before. "This past year," Sarah's mind flashed to the warehouse. "All I wanted was to be…" Sarah searched for the word she was looking for. "Free." Sarah straightened and looked over at the desk, at the end of the bed. She reached over and she picked up several papers, which showed several trapeze routines. "What better way than to fly on the trapeze?" Sarah began to read through all the pages


	4. First and Last Time

**To whoever left me the two page review as anonymous… It didn't make any sense. Yes, I read it. (skimmed it) It was also unappreciated, as I felt had nothing to do with my fanfiction.**

Sarah swallowed hard, she glanced over her shoulder at Dick. They stood high above the crowd, she gripped the bar. After months of training, she was doing her first performance. It was easy, swing on the trapeze, grab the next, swing up to hang by her knees, swing back, flip herself off the bar, catch Dick's hands, allow him to swing her to the opposite side, let go, summersault, and land perfectly on the other landing. A beginner's routine.

Dick smiled at her and gave her thumbs up. Sarah let out her pent up breath and looked out at the crowd. Camera flashes made the stands glitter, the cheers made a roar. Sarah's eyes settled on Mary, Mary mouthed, "You got this."

The spotlight landed on Sarah, she sprung from the edge and hit every move spot on. Until she got to catching Dick's hands, as she let go of the bar with her legs her heels caught the bar. Dick stuttered as he caught her fingers, then her landing was shaky. Mary steadied her with a hand.

"I did it!" Sarah hugged Mary tightly, then she bowed to the crowd as Mary and John went into their routine. As the spotlight shifted to Mary and John, Sarah climbed down to the ground.

Dick met her back stage. "Sarah, I'm so sorry." He stopped when he saw her grin.

"That was great!" Sarah jumped and spun around. "I actually did it."

"Yeah, you did." Dick smiled as Sarah hugged him.

"It was if I was flying." Sarah spun away from him with her arms out wide and she looked up at the stars outside of the tent.

"That's why we're called the flying Graysons."

"We?" Sarah faltered, she turned to Dick.

"Yeah," Dick smiled. "Didn't you hear Jack announce us?"

"Really?" Sarah hugged her arms to her body.

"It can't be official, because you can't remember your last name, but…"

Sarah cut him off as she hugged him.

"So you want to stay?"

"No place I'd rather be." Sarah pulled away. "Now let's watch the rest of the show." Sarah ran over to a trunk, she opened it and pulled out a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, and a pair of sneakers. She threw them on and Dick followed her example. They slipped into the crowd and watched the rest of the circus.

~ 2 nights later~

"Dick, you're heavier than you look." Sarah said through gritted teeth, she stood facing the train car. Her hands were above her head, supporting Dick's feet as he reached for the roof of the car.

"Just a little higher." Dick reached for the edge of the roof. "Then we can get ready for the show."

"We couldn't we do this the easy way?" Sarah glanced at the ladder on the side of the car.

"Don't you want to know if we can do it?" Dick glanced down at her.

"I don't care to." Sarah gritted her teeth and shifted her stance.

"Steady."

Sarah's feet slipped in the gravel and she fell. "Ooff." Sarah then took in a sharp breath as Dick fell on top of her. "Ouch!"

"Sorry." Dick scrambled up and helped Sarah.

Sarah flinched as she got up and held her side.

"What's going on?" Mary and John came running around the train car.

"I wanted to see if we could climb on top of the train car." Dick scuffed his foot on the ground as he hung his head. "Sarah lost her footing and we fell."

"Oh, ow." Sarah tried to straighten.

All three turned to look at her as she held her side. "Richard, go get the doctor." Mary put her arm around Sarah and helped her into the train car as Dick ran in the opposite direction.

Sarah was holding a bag of ice to her side when the doctor came in. "You Graysons never listen to me anyway." He frowned as he came in the door. He settled down next to Sarah and began to inspect her side. He lifted her tanktop slightly as he looked. "Cracked ribs. No performing for a few weeks, no training either." He stood up and offered wrap to Mary. "Not that I think you'll listen to me." The doctor rubbed his balding head and picked up his bag. "Take pills if the pain is too much." He sighed and left the room.

"We've performed with cracked ribs before." Mary handed the medical wrap to Sarah. "If you don't want to perform, that's fine."

"No way, I'm missing a performance." Sarah sat up and wrapped the medical wrap tightly around her ribs.

"Mary and I will be at the tent, you two come when you're ready." John held the door open for Mary.

"Okay." Sarah grabbed her leotard and went to the bathroom to change. When she was done she waited for Dick to do the same.

Sarah looked down at her leotard as they walked toward the tent. It was green and had a gold trimmed 'G' on the front. Sarah finished tying off her hand wraps when she glanced up and saw Jack talking to a man. He had a square face, jet black hair, green eyes, and sharp facial features. Sarah took in a sharp breath and ducked behind some crates. Despite the pain in her side she brought her knees close and hugged them.

"Sarah, what's wrong?" Dick put a hand on her shoulder and kneeled next to her.

Her eyes were wide with fear as she stared straight ahead. "He's come for me."

Dick glanced at Jack and the man, they were moving away. "Can you make it inside?"

Sarah nodded slowly and peeked over the crate, and then she left quickly. Back stage, with the hustle and bustle to get the show on the road, Sarah felt safer. She peeked through the curtains and saw Mary and John head up to the trapeze. Sarah slipped out into the darkness and climbed the other landing. On top she took a deep breath and flinched at the pain in her side. "The show must go on." She muttered to herself.

"Welcome Gotham…" Jack started his speech. Sarah glanced down at the ground, looking for Dick. She saw him coming up the ladder. He wouldn't look at her as he pulled himself up on the landing.

"What did he say to Jack?" Sarah was hesitant to ask.

"I'll explain after the show." Dick looked at his parents and gave a grim smile. Sarah forgot her own fear and puzzled over his behavior.

"… The flying Graysons!"

Sarah snapped to focus, the spotlight rested on Mary and John. Mary swung out first, then John. Mary let go of her trapeze as John grabbed her ankles. They swung again and just as Mary was going to grab Sarah's hands to swing her to the opposite landing, the cable snapped. Sarah lunged forward, her fingers just brushed Mary's fingertips as Dick wrapped his arms around her and jerked her back. Both on their hands and knees, looked over the edge of the landing and watched as their parents lay broken and bloody on the ground.


	5. Nightmares

**Thank you again for your lovely reviews**

Sarah rolled over; she was tangled in the sheets and blankets. Her hair was in a tangled mess, her eyelids flitted quickly.

"_Mom!" Sarah lunged forward, dangerously close to the edge of the landing. She was lying down as she reached out for Mary's hand. Mary's fingers latched onto Sarah's, then Sarah was yanked back and she let go. "No." Sarah broke down in tears as she watched the decent. She opened her mouth to speak…_

Thunder cracked and a bolt of lightning lit up the night. Sarah sat up in bed, she rubbed her temples. "What woke me up?" She murmured to herself. She jumped at another flash of lightning, and then she glanced around the room. She noticed that Mary and John's bed was made. "Wait…" Sarah rubbed her temples again as she remembered what had happened that evening. She wrapped her arms around herself and swung out of bed. She walked over to the window, she reached up and traced the path of a raindrop on the glass.

"_Why is it raining?" A three year old Sarah pressed her nose to the window of the apartment._

"_The angels are crying." A man with sandy hair and blue eyes got up from a recliner and went to stand by Sarah. He rested a hand on her shoulder._

"_Why Daddy?"_

"_Why do you think, Princess?"_

"_I think someone died, someone good, so the angels are sad."_

"_Felix, don't fill her head with such fairytales and fantasies."_

_Felix turned toward the kitchen. "Natasha, she's a child. Let her dream."_

_Sarah turned from the window. "Mama, why do you think it rains?"_

"Sarah?"

Sarah turned from the window and watched Dick roll out of bed and come to the window.

"What are you thinking?"

"Um." Sarah turned back to the window and traced another raindrop path. "Rain, angel tears, and what could I have done?"

"Nothing, It was my fault."

"How?" Sarah turned to him with tears in her eyes.

"I heard him; I knew what he was going to do. I was too scared to do anything."

Sarah thought of the man that had held her captive for a year and burst into tears.

"I'm sorry." Dick hugged her as she cried herself back to sleep.

~ next morning ~

The rain pounded the ground around the small shelter. Dick and Sarah stood before the fresh graves, Dick held Sarah's hand. Sarah was afraid that he too would leave her. Someone walked up behind them, Sarah didn't move, her gaze was fixed on the graves. She felt numb to the weather and outside forces. She felt Dick's hand slip from hers as he turned to talk to the man. It was all a mindless buzzing to her. She didn't even realize that she had sunk to her knees; silent tears ran down her face. She jumped when a hand was placed on her shoulder. She looked up into the face of an older man.

"Shall we go to the car, miss?" He had a British accent. Sarah stood with his help and followed him to the car. She was dripping wet as she got in the car. The air blew full force on high heat, soon Sarah's dress was dry and her hair dried.

"Miss Sarah." Sarah's attention slowly moved from the window to the man in the driver's seat. "You are nine, yes?"

"As of yesterday." Sarah's voice dropped to a whisper and she closed her eyes shut.


	6. Exhaustion

**Thanks for the reviews. Yes, her birthday is the day that John and Mary died. Thank you for noticing.**

"Sarah, I'm here to help you come to terms with the death of your adoptive parents."

"Come to terms or deal with?" Sarah's voice was pitched low as she turned to look at the therapist that Mr. Wayne made her see. The woman looked taken back by Sarah's tone. "They weren't _just_ my adoptive parents, they _were_ my parents."

"Let's talk about the night they died." The woman regained her composure and gestured for Sarah to sit across from her. Sarah continued to stand by the window and she pressed a hand to the cold pane. "Dick said that he had to pull you back, that you almost went down with them."

"Why didn't I?" Sarah whispered against the glass, causing it to fog up.

"What was that?" The woman pushed her glasses up higher on her nose.

"Nothing." Sarah turned from the window and flopped into the armchair. One arm behind her back, the other under her knees, and she stared at the ceiling.

"Tell me about your nightmares."

"What nightmares?" Sarah looked at the therapist, her face showed confusion.

"Mr. Wayne tells me that every night you scream in your sleep."

"I don't remember anything." Sarah shrugged.

"Sarah, what do you do to pass your time?"

"Schoolwork."

"You're nine, you don't have schoolwork."

"So?" Sarah shrugged, she tugged at her sleeves.

"I know that you've been enrolled in a gymnastics class, but you haven't been attending. Why?"

"It's too dangerous." Sarah turned away.

"If Mr. Wayne insisted that you attend and participate, would you?"

"I guess." Sarah rubbed her arms.

"Let's discuss your life before you met the Graysons."

"No!" Sarah stood suddenly. She retreated to the window, shaking her head viciously.

"You need to talk about it, if we are going to make any progress."

"I don't want to remember it!" Sarah shrieked at the top of her lungs as the therapist stood and started walking toward her.

The door to the small parlor opened suddenly and Mr. Wayne stood in the door frame. "That's enough, Ms. Dawson. Your time is up."

Sarah made her way around the woman and sprinted to Mr. Wayne's side. He put an arm around her protectively. "Alfred will make sure you get to your room without a problem." Sarah looked around him and saw Alfred standing in the hallway. She took his outstretched hand and left.

Mr. Wayne shut the door and motioned for Ms. Dawson to sit down. "You're here to make her feel safe."

"I'm sorry Mr. Wayne, but she clams up tighter than anyone I've had sessions with."

"What do you suggest we do to make her feel safe?"

"Possibly more security, but that might make her feel trapped." The woman referred to her notes. "Maybe find her real parents. As for the dreams, I'd say exhaust her. Have her so busy that when she sleep she sleeps hard so that she won't have dreams."

"What if she still has the dreams, but can't wake herself?"

"It's a risk you'll have to be willing to take."


	7. Friends

**To those who read the chapter 'Pride' I'm sorry, but I didn't like it so I rewrote it.**

Sarah entered the gymnasium; she had kept her word to Mr. Wayne and went to the gymnastics class he had signed her up for. The ceiling was very high and was supported by white metal beams, white pillars were spaced out evenly. A third of the gym had blue mats covering the floor and floor equipment for the girls. On the far side were mats and floor equipment for the boys. In the middle, a trapeze hung from the ceiling, Sarah swallowed hard as she looked away from it. She pushed the image from her mind. She scanned the crowd of girls, looking for an adult to tell her wear to go.

"Sarah Grayson!"

Sarah whipped around to see a woman with short gray hair and blue eyes.

"Get changed and be with your classmates at 3:30." The woman pointed to the lockers on Sarah's left.

Sarah slid into the locker room; a few of the girls looked up at her and sneered. Sarah took her duffle into a stall and changed into white leggings and a red and silver long sleeve leotard. When she was done all the girls had left except for one. Sarah tossed her duffle under a bench and turned to leave.

"Sarah?"

Sarah stopped and turned around. The girl had come up close behind her, she had strawberry blonde hair, hazel eyes, a light spray of freckles, a round face, and a small nose.

"I'm Malinda, I heard the other girls talking about doing something to your stuff if you ever came. Do you want to put your duffle in my locker?" Malinda gestured to an open locker with a duffle already stuffed in it.

"Why?" Sarah raised an eyebrow.

"I know what it's like to be the new girl on the team. I went through all their initiation."

Sarah saw how Malinda wrung her hands and realized that this was a lot for the girl to say so much to someone she didn't know. "Thanks." Sarah smiled and put her duffle in the locker. Malinda clicked the lock shut and they both dashed off to join the team as the clock turned over to 3:30.

"Now, we are going through everything. Till everyone gets it right. I don't care how long we are here tonight."

"But Jamie, we're only nine."

"Do you want to be able to score well on the high school team?" The woman with short gray hair and blue eyes looked over the group. "Okay, then." She waved them to the mats. One after another they performed skills as Jamie called them out. "Backwards roll, bent arm back extension roll…" Sarah began to realized that just a month without practice had put her slightly out of shape. "… forward pike roll, forward roll…"

"_If you don't use it, you loose it." _Sarah wondered who had first said that saying.

"… forward straddle roll, handstand, handstand forward roll…" Sarah's foot slipped and she fell flat on her back. Her hair band holding her bun in place snapped.

"Here." Malinda, who was in line behind her, quickly pulled a band off her wrist and shoved it at Sarah, With a flushed face Sarah quickly threw up her hair and did the handstand forward roll again.

"… neck kip to stand, round off, and straight arm back extension roll."

Sarah came to a standstill and forced herself not to show how out of breath she was.

"Jamie?" A girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and high cheek bones stepped forward.

"Savannah."

"I have to use the ladies room."

"Hurry up." Jamie waved her on, and then she glanced at her clipboard. Then she started yelling out skills. Sarah began to follow mindlessly, focusing on the placement of her hands and feet. Enjoying the rush of air whenever she moved quickly. By 6:00 the girls were allowed to stop for a water break.

"You did well out there." Sarah looked at Malinda as they walked to the locker room. Sarah was sure that Malinda's face flushed redder. "What?"

"Just that a Grayson is complimenting me on my skills." Malinda shrugged.

"It's true." Sarah reached up and began to put her hair in a neater bun. Malinda held the locker room door open for her.

"You priss!"

Sarah was shoved up against the lockers by Savannah. "What did I ever do to you?" Sarah's face was full of confusion.

"You think you can come onto this team and show up all of us who have been here since we were six?"

"How often do you practice?"

Savannah was slightly taken back, but recovered quickly. "Six hours once a week."

"If the shoe fits, wear it." Sarah slipped out from under Savannah's arms, she grabbed one of the water bottles from a cooler and began to chug it as she walked out with Malinda on her heels.

"That wasn't wise."

"I trained practically every day all day for almost a year. I took a month break, even so, there is no way a _priss_ like Savannah is going to get me to quit. I shouldn't have taken a break at all."

"The gym is only open for class on Monday nights. Only girls with private memberships can get in on the other days."

Sarah smirked, she had noticed a gym when she had been wandering around Wayne manor. "Do you have one?"

"No. I have a scholarship."

"How about you come over to my place, we can practice together." Sarah stood with her hands on her hips, Sarah and Malinda were back at the mats.

"At Wayne manor?"

"Why not? You're the first friend I've made here." Sarah shrugged.

"Friend?" Malinda looked hopeful. "Okay." She smiled. Right then Jamie and the rest of the team joined them on the mats.

"Sarah, you're up first on the trapeze." Jamie pointed to the bar hanging next to a landing that was around on of the pillars.

Sarah felt as if the air in the room had been sucked out. She swallowed hard and rested her eyes on the trapeze. "Do I have to?"

"Do it, or you're off the team."

Sarah heard Savannah hiss into her ear. Sarah clenched her hands into fists, her nails biting into her palms. _"There is no way a priss like Savannah will make me quit."_ Sarah wished she hadn't said those words, but she loved the movements of gymnastics. She could always do them at home, but there was something about doing gymnastics with people who loved it to. Sarah looked at Malinda, she couldn't leave Malinda to these girls.

"Never mind." Sarah squared her shoulders, she climbed the pillar to the landing. _"Don't look down, don't look down."_ Sarah stood on the landing, she reached out for the bar, she glanced down at the net, and she wobbled. Slowly she sank to her knees as she saw the lights dim, a crowd shuffled in their seats, cameras flashed, Sarah gripped the edge of the landing as she lowered her eyes. Below her, in the ring, lay John and Mary's bodies, bruised, broken, and bloody. Tears welled up in Sarah's eyes and her stomach rebelled against her, she spilled the meager contents of her stomach. Shrieks became distant as the lights turned off for Sarah, she slumped over on the landing.

**So pretty much the same, but I wanted Sarah and Malinda to have more interaction.**

**Please review! **


	8. Big Red

~next afternoon~

"Beep."

Sarah's eyes felt heavy, she forced them open and looked up at the white tiles in the ceiling. She frowned, they didn't look familiar to her. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked about the room. It took her a moment to realize that she was in a hospital, though her thinking was still foggy. She settled her gaze on a man in a suit, he had dark hair and Sarah instantly thought of the man from her nightmarish year from age seven to age eight. She let out a scream, she started to fight the sheets and run from the room. The man startled awake from the chair.

"Sarah?"

Sarah blushed as soon as her mind cleared and she saw Mr. Wayne standing by the bed, reaching to comfort her. His hand paused midway as she shrank into the bed and drew her knees close. A nurse flew into the room and He brought his hand back to his side.

"Is everything alright?"

"She was just startled."

The nurse turned to Sarah, who offered an apologetic smile, then she turned and left.

Mr. Wayne settled back down into the chair. "Care to explain about last night?"

Sarah rested her chin on her knees. "I couldn't handle it, I'm sorry. It just took me back to that night. I could see them so vividly, it made me sick." Sarah looked up from under her lashes.

He rubbed his temples and ran a hand through his hair. "Why were you up there in the first place?" He dropped his hands to his knees.

"Savannah said if I didn't do it, then I was off the team." Sarah gripped her knees tighter, she knew she shouldn't have pushed herself.

"Sarah." He ran a hand over his face. "You refused to go for weeks, now on the first night you go, you will do anything to stay on the team. What possessed to do such a thing?"

"I couldn't leave Malinda to take Savannah on by herself." Sarah brought her head up and steeled her voice.

Mr. Wayne looked at her as if seeing her in a new light or for the first time. He was sizing her up, trying to figure her out.

"I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused, Mr. Wayne." Sarah rested her forehead on her knees.

"Bruce." He got up and put a hand on her shoulder and stood there till she looked up. Which was five minutes, because she was crying silently and she tried to get the tears under control. Then she looked up at him with her eyes rimmed red. "Perhaps you weren't ready for so much pressure. When you are ready to open up, please do so without fear." Bruce brushed strands of hair out of Sarah's face. "I'll go see when you can go back to the manor." He dropped his hand from her shoulder and went out of the room.

~ that evening ~

Sarah was back in normal clothes, a red tank layered with a white hooded zip up and a black jacket. She wore blue jeans and a pair of athletic sneakers.

"Welcome back Miss Sarah." Alfred took her hoodie and jacket. "Are you feeling better today?"

"I believe so." Sarah looked down the front hall, it had oak paneling, wood floors covered with a lush scarlet carpet runner. A coat rack was next to the door and an empty side table sat under a gold framed painting of a bowl of fruit farther down the hall. Light spilled out of a door way on the end of the hall.

"Master Dick is in the kitchen, if you'd like some ice cream." Alfred stood to Sarah's left and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Okay." Sarah smiled and headed for the light.

She jumped when Dick jumped into the open doorway. "Sarah, I got something to make you feel better." He held out a pack of Big Red gum, with a piece slightly pulled out.

"Mmmm." Sarah licked her lips and went to pull the piece out just as she saw the mischievous glint in Dick's eyes. When her fingers pressed down on the piece of gum, she felt an electric current run through her body, buzzing between her fingers and the gum pack.


	9. Wings

Sarah gritted her teeth as she felt her wings, beneath the surface of her skin, stir. She pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth in an effort to stop her groan of pain. She arched her back and the wings ripped through her skin, muscle, and tank. She felt the blood splatter as her wings stretched to their full span. Her wing span was slightly longer than her arm span. She felt the blood hit her hair as she saw it hit Dick and Alfred. They were speckled as her wings gave a few beats against the air. She squeezed her eyes shut as she willed her wings back underneath her skin. All of this happening in a matter of a few seconds, Sarah turned from the kitchen. She ran down the front hall and she flung open the door. Looking at the ground as she stepped out the door, she ran into Bruce, who had been putting the car away.

"Sarah, what's wrong?" Bruce steadied her, as he did, he saw her ripped tank and blood soaked hair. "What happened?" He closed the front door and knelt down in front of her as Alfred and Dick came up.

Sarah, so embarrassed and frustrated with herself for not keeping it together, burst into tears and hiccupped as she explained. "I…I…I have wings."

Bruce guided her into the small parlor and seated her in a red velvet armchair as he sat on the footrest. "When did you first get them?"

"When I was…hic…seven." Sarah covered her face and folded over. "I was so scared when I got them, I ran, right into danger." Sarah hiccupped several times. "The man who killed Mary and John, he kept me in a cage. Whenever he wanted, he'd give me a shock so my wings would come out. He…he just liked to see me in pain. When I got the chance, I ran again, onto a train." Sarah looked up from her curled position. Dick had wiped off the splatters on his face and was hovering next to the arm of the chair.

"I have some people who can look into your wings."

Sarah's eyes widened, she didn't want to be a lab rat. "In a lab?" She whispered, she wiggled farther into the chair.

"No." Bruce put a hand on her shoulder, gently. "I'll have them come here. I will be with you; after all, I'm your guardian. It's my job to make you feel safe."

"You don't think I'm a freak?" Sarah sat up and drew her knees in close.

"No, I want you to think of this place as a safe haven."

"Haven?" Sarah sat up, it sounded familiar. "Haven! That's my last name! I remember, my mother's name is Natasha Haven!"

Bruce walked over to a computer on a cherry wood desk.

"What are you doing?" Sarah was hit with a wave of panic.

"Looking for your mother." Bruce typed away on the keyboard.

"She saw me the first time." Sarah nipped at her lower lip. "What if she's scared of me?"

"I'll meet her first, but finding her will help with the questions about your genetics."

Sarah frowned, then saw his sense in his thinking. She edged over to see the screen, she jumped when she felt fingers lace through hers. She turned to look at Dick.

"It'll be all right." Dick then put an arm around her shoulders and they both watched the screen for results.

A newspaper article popped up, Bruce skimmed through it. He sighed and pushed back from the desk. Sarah caught the words _"Child Endangerment"_.

"She's in jail for child endangerment."

Sarah felt as if the world came to a slamming halt, "What? Why?"

"You disappeared, the neighbors most likely heard you when your wings came out for the first time and turned her in."

"How long?" Sarah brought a hand to her mouth.

"Ten years."

"I've got to go to her. Show them I'm alright." Sarah turned to the door, though she had no idea how she would get there or where there was.

"Tell them what? They'll want to know where you were and why. How would you tell them without mentioning your wings?"

Sarah stopped and turned back to Bruce, defeated.

"I'll go see her, we'll keep things quiet and under the radar."

"Why?" Sarah shoved her hands in her pockets.

"Because I know others like you and I won't stand for human experimenting." Bruce reached for his phone.

~two days later~

"Can we please take the blind fold off?" Sarah asked as she stumbled again.

"Do you trust me?" Dick's voice came from behind her.

"Yes." Sarah was hesitant.

"Then forget the blindfold."

"I can't, it's the only thing I can see." Sarah said dryly.

After a few more minutes of blind fumbling Dick pulled the blindfold off of Sarah's eyes. Sarah blinked to adjust to the bright light, she was in a small room. There was a low table with chairs, the walls looked to be made of rock.

"Are we in a cave?" Sarah looked behind her as the door opened again and people came through. A man and a woman came through, what was behind them made Sarah's mouth drop open. The man and woman, each had a pair of wings sprouting from their backs. They wore masks that covered their eyes and their wings were golden.

"Sarah, these are Hawkwoman and Hawkman."


	10. Alice & Batcave

**I regrettably must tell the readers that I will be moving and updates will be farther apart, due to lack of internet. I will visit the library when I can to update.**

Sarah took in the masks, the outfits, and the wings. It dawned on her that two _superheroes_ were coming to look at _her_ wings. Sarah then frowned, "How does Mr…." Sarah felt an elbow in her ribs, she looked at Dick with a glare.

"This is Alice." Dick pointed to Sarah.

"That's not…"

Dick glared at her. "We're keeping our identities secret." He hissed in her ear. Sarah crossed her eyes at him before she turned to the others.

The Hawks looked Sarah over, turned to each other, shared a silent look, and then turned back to Dick. "Robin, we came to see a girl with wings." Hawkwoman took a step forward.

"Just a minute." Dick turned to Sarah. "I brought this." He showed her the prank pack of Big Red gum. "Is this the only way you know how to…" Dick paused and gave a quick glance at her back.

Sarah snatched the pack from his hand and looked at it sadly. "I'll never look at Big Red gum the same again." She pressed the electrodes with her fingertips, the current sparked through her limbs and vibrated her wings. Her wings ripped through her back like a knife through butter. "Ergh." Sarah gritted her teeth and arched her back. She felt blood splatter as they beat against the air. She swallowed hard and looked up at the Hawks. Hawkwoman came forward and reached out as the wings began to quiver, then she looked at where the wings attached to Sarah's back.

"You're not healing."

"What?" Sarah turned her head, trying to see her back.

"Where the wings meet your back, the flesh hasn't healed." Hawkwoman ran her fingers over the bloody feathers.

"Most likely because she can grow her wings." Hawkman came up, he rubbed blood off of a few feathers. "The feathers are black."

"Are these your only gift?" Hawkwoman stepped over to be in front of Sarah.

"I think so." Sarah griped the gum in her palm and felt another electric shock. Her face buzzed, her eyes hurt and her hair shivered.

"Apparently not." Hawkwoman pulled a strand of hair over for Sarah to look at. The strand was jet black. "Your eyes are dark too and your face is narrower, sharper."

"What happened?" Sarah looked around the room for something to show herself.

"Here." Dick produced a small mirror.

Sarah quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Always be prepared."

Sarah took the mirror and looked at her face. Her eyes were black, her face was no longer childlike, she had cheekbones and an oval face. "What happened?" She looked from Dick to Hawkwoman.

"It's like you can morph." Dick shrugged his shoulders.

"More like a glamour." Hawkwoman put a hand on Sarah's cheek. "Relax."

Sarah took a deep breath and felt her hair shiver, her eyes hurt and she looked in the mirror again. Her face was back to the green eyes and round face with the blond hair over her shoulders.

"We can't say anything, other than she's not like us." Hawkman stood by the door.

"Get a blood sample and a DNA sample." Hawkwoman joined her mate. "Other than that, find her birth parents." With that, they were gone.

"Whoa." Sarah whispered and stared at the open door.

"Come on." Dick pulled on her arm as he left the room.

Sarah followed quickly, not taking note of the passages. "Why'd they call you Robin? I know the identity thing. But why 'Robin'? How does Mr. Wayne know them? Is he a superhero too? Is he Superman?"

"Because that's what I choose. He works with them from time to time. Maybe. No."

"Hey, what's this?" Sarah veered off from the tunnel and entered another passage that opened up to a large space, in the middle was a car on a platform, below that was a dock with a boat. There was a walkway around the edge, a large computer system on the side. Sarah turned to her right to see display cases.

"The Batcave." Dick put a hand over his face. "He's going to kill me for not blindfolding you."

"Batman?" Sarah looked around, then headed for the computer. Her wing brushed the railing and she stepped farther away from the edge. "Is Mr. Wayne Batman?"

"Yes."

Sarah jumped as the chair in front of the computer turned around and Bruce Wayne in full Batman costume turned around with the cowl thrown back.

"I need a sample." He held up a needle and syringe.

"Oh." Sarah swallowed hard and looked at the light glinting off of the needle. She offered her arm and watched as Bruce inserted the needle in her vein.

"Welcome to the Bat cave, Alice."


	11. Brats in the Narrows

**My readers, I'm sorry for the gap in my updates. I got my wisdom teeth pulled and wasn't up to much of anything. Now I am feeling much better and here is your update …**

Sarah leaned against the metal table, Batman was putting drops of her blood in different vials of chemicals. He would frown and set a vial aside, then move on to the next one. "Why are you doing that? What reaction are you looking for?" Sarah pushed herself up, bracing her hands against the top of the table and leaning toward the middle of the table. She received a glare from Batman, "How are you going to test my DNA? Why did you have Dick call me 'Alice'?"

"It's just a name."

Sarah turned and relaxed to the floor. She settled her feet back on the ground and unpressed her hands from the cool surface. Dick sat on a stool, Sarah took in his uniform. He had green pants on, a yellow and red top, and a cape. His eyes were trained on his boots, Sarah shrugged and turned back to the vials. Batman rubbed his head in frustration.

"Since I'm considered a freak now…"

"No!"

Sarah took a step back at Batman's menacing tone, her face went slack she grappled for the wall behind her for support. "I just wanted to know if I was going to be sent to a lab." Sarah whispered. She dropped her head and fought all her natural urges to fight, instead to submit.

Sarah flinched when she felt a hand lift up her chin, Bruce knelt in front of her, her face in his hand. "I meant that you're not a freak. I don't ever want you to think that. At first I thought you were going to ask me to join in the crime fighting, like Dick."

"Why does he join you?"

"To bring _those_ men to justice."

Sarah could hear Dick's voice hardening to steel.

"Have they been brought in?" Sarah's voice softened as she remembered that terrifying face.

"Yes."

"Master Bruce." A voice crackled over a speaker.

"Yes, Alfred." Bruce returned to his chair.

"There is a guest for Miss Sarah."

Sarah went rigged, "I forgot I invited Malinda over." She snagged her black jacket from a chair and sprinted up the stairs, she felt her wings brush along the rock wall. She paused and willed them back next to her rib cage. When she paused, Robin slipped past her and lead her out of the passages and back to the manor.

"Tell her I'm in the shower." Sarah sprinted past Alfred, she slid into her room, swung the door shut and she stripped as she headed for the shower, she shampooed her hair once and lathered her body quickly to get rid of the blood. She toweled off quickly and yanked on a pair of skinny jeans, a red tank top, a black zip up, a red jacket, and red converse. She ruffed her hair with the towel and ran a hair dryer over it until her hair was half dry. Then she snapped a red band on her wrist and snagged her phone off her dresser as she left the room, she skipped the stairs two at a time as she put her long hair in a braid. She took the phone from her mouth and slipped it into her pocket as she entered the parlor.

"Hey, ready for that walk?" Malinda put her tea cup and saucer down.

"Yeah." Sarah grinned and led Malinda out of the manor.

Sarah was smacked in the face with an icy blast when she opened up the door and stepped out onto the walk.

"So what made you forget about our walk?" Malinda grinned as she let out a stream of steam from her lips.

"Oh, Bruce and I were talking." Sarah brushed the comment off as she pulled on her gloves and watched as Malinda pulled on a pair of purple gloves that matched her coat and hat.

"About what?" Malinda crossed her arms and contented herself with blowing different shaped orbs in the air.

"My," Sarah paused for only a few seconds. "My new schedule."

"I was wondering about that." Malinda looked at Sarah, as they walked. "I don't see you in classes anymore."

"Yeah," Sarah shrugged. "The doctor said that I had a panic attack do to stress. He suggested that my classes were too hard and that I should channel my stress into more physical activity." Sarah let out a laugh. "But get this! My Psychologist says my classes aren't hard enough. She says that I think too much about that night. So I need to focus on more complicated things to take my mind off of my parents." Sarah hadn't realized that she had stopped walking. Malinda put a hand on Sarah's shoulder, then hugged her.

"You can do it. I'll help you. What's your schedule?"

Sarah looked up at Malinda, "Thanks." Sarah started walking again. "Well, let's see." Sarah looked down at her fingers and started to list off things. "In school, I've been put in all the advanced classes. Monday evenings I have gymnastics, Tuesdays are kick boxing classes, Wednesdays I have an advanced technology class, Thursdays I have a mixed martial arts class, Fridays are my sessions with my psychologist, Saturdays I study for school and the doctor comes to give me physicals, and Sundays are my days off."

"Wow." Malinda rubbed the back of her head. "Not much I can help you with, except Monday evenings."

"It's okay." Sarah grinned and shoved her hands in her jacket pockets as she walked on. "I'll survive."

"Hey," Malinda stopped in her tracks and looked around her. "Where are we?" The buildings around them looked shabby, garbage and junk littered the streets and allies around them. Above them laundry hung from lines strung between the apartment buildings.

"I think we're in the slums." Sarah turned around quickly. Behind them the bridge that connected the island with the Narrows on it to the rest of Gotham, was in the distance.

"We should hurry back to the bridge." Malinda turned to the bridge.

"No, we need to be calm. Act like we know exactly where we are." Sarah slipped her hand into Malinda's and they slowly headed back for the bridge.

"We do." Malinda said in a low tone.

"Shh." Sarah shushed her as they made a B-line for the bridge. Sarah felt Malinda jump and take a step closer to her.

"Did you hear that?"

"The laugh?" Sarah struggled to keep her voice even, she hated that the sky was darkening so fast this time of year. She glanced up at a fire escape, she saw a blonde boy come out he gave them a grim smile. It vanished quickly and he gestured for them to move faster. Sarah and Malinda looked behind them. They froze as they saw a man, his face was white. The paint wore off in his creases and where sweat had worn off the color. His eyes were painted black and a worn red smile was plastered across his face. His hair was dirty and green.

"You think the Bat will come for two brats?" The man bounced a crowbar against his hand.


	12. Humans

Sarah's head ached, she opened her eyes a fraction. She saw concrete pressed up against her cheek. She licked her lips and tasted dried blood. She breathed slowly, watching the dust on the floor swirl. She carefully wiggled her wrists and felt the rough fibers of rope. Then she shifted her feet and felt the rope bite into her skin. She strained her ears for some sort of sound, then she began to rock her body. On her back she looked up at the warehouse ceiling, she gulped back memories. She bent her knees and flattened her hands against the floor, then she pulled herself up into a sit up. To her left Sarah saw Malinda in the same position, except she had a gag on, the dirty cloth pulled back on the corners of her mouth. Sarah grimaced, then she took in the apparently empty warehouse. She saw a video camera on a tripod set up next to a pillar. Sarah didn't see anyone, she stood awkwardly, she shuffled over to a stack of boxes, on it were their personal things scattered across the surface. Sarah licked her lips again as she glanced at her hands behind her back. She backed up against one of the pillars and began to rub her bonds over the rough corner. She strained to keep her sigh of exasperation silent; breaking the bonds was taking too long. She shuffled back to the boxes, she picked up her phone using her mouth. She sank to the ground using the boxes to slide down. She set her phone on the ground and worked off a shoe, using her toes she started calling Bruce. She slid the phone between two boxes, then she worked her other shoes off and slid the bonds off of her feet. Then she was able to walk over to Malinda. She sank down against Malinda's back. Her fingers were numb, but she worked at Malinda's bonds. "I'll get you out, and then run for help. You're smaller than me." Sarah's whisper was barely audible.

"Ah. Look who's awake."

Sarah felt a hand close around her ankle, she was yanked so quickly that she couldn't look. Her shoulders screamed as her arms slammed against the floor. Her head cracked against the floor, she moaned.

"Now, now. I have a story to tell you."

Sarah looked up at the one who had dragged her away from Malinda. "Joker." The name tasted terrible in her mouth.

He laughed giddily. "Say it again." He clapped his hands.

Sarah pressed her lips together and shook her head. She felt a sharp pain in her ribs, she watched as he brought the crowbar back for another swing. Sarah turned on her side and curled up. "You're sick." She choked out between spats of blood.

"I just embrace the chaos."

Sarah turned to look at him, he licked his lips and stared at her, his head slowly turned to Malinda. He hefted the crowbar to his shoulder and took a few paces toward Malinda. "No!" Sarah's voice cracked as she struggled to get up. She strained at the bonds that held her hands. She felt the ropes stretch as the Joker's crowbar made contact with Malinda's lower leg. Even with the gag, Sarah cringed at Malinda's cry of pain. The clown danced around in glee as Sarah forced her wrists to slip out of the ropes. He swung up and on the downward stroke, Sarah stood between him and Malinda. The bar cracked down on her raised left forearm. Sarah clenched her teeth, grinding them together to keep from feeding the Joker's happiness. She locked her eyes on the Joker's, he seemed to have no end to them.

"Now, now. Dear." He dropped the crowbar and shoved his hands into his pockets, one hand came out with a knife. He put a hand around her neck, keeping her chin up. The other came up with a knife and held it to her cheek. "You wanna know how I got these scars?"

"No." Sarah swallowed hard.

"Really?" He moved his hand so he held her cheek.

"What's the camera for?" Sarah tried to distract him from the knife in his hand.

"That thing?" He gestured toward the camera with his knife hand. "That's live broadcast." He grinned madly and raised Sarah up so she was on her toes.

Sarah saw a black flash out of the corner of her eye, then she heard a childish laugh with a flash of red, yellow, and green. "Not anymore." Sarah brought her knee up fast. The Joker cringed as Sarah hit her target, she was thrown back as a fist made contact with the Joker's head. She fell back on Malinda and rolled onto the concrete. Sarah spat out some blood and sat up too quickly. First silver sparkles filled her vision, blurring the masked face in front of her, then everything faded away.

~ 1 day later ~

_Beep_

Sarah wanted to sigh and roll her eyes, but felt that would take much of the precious energy she had. She opened her eyes, she had an IV in her arm feeding her blood. There were tubes in her nose, and another IV gave her a clear liquid. Her eyes settled on a figure in a chair at the end of the bed. He was vaguely familiar. His hair was a sandy brown mop, the head came up and Sarah recognized the face. "Daddy!" The man gave a slight smile.

"Lucky I was looking for you." He motioned toward the bag of blood. "They didn't have any of your blood in stock." He gave a grim smile.

Sarah's smile left her face, she looked at the blood for only a moment, "Daddy?" Sarah glanced at the closed door.

"Yes?"

"We're not human, are we?"


	13. Pranks

"No." The man rubbed his face and stood, he began pacing.

"What are we?" Sarah folded her hands in her lap, she followed his pacing with her eyes.

"_I am_ a guardian angel." He glanced at Sarah, seeing if she believed him. Her look was skeptical, he plowed on. "_You,_ you are half angel."

"What's my other half?" Sarah saw how this question made him uncomfortable. What other explanations were there for her wings?

"It's best that you don't know what your mother was." He put his hands on the foot of the bed and leaned against the bed. "Trust me?" His look was hopeful and nervous.

"So she isn't something now?" Sarah fisted the blanket in her hands.

He paused, as if thinking it over carefully. "I suppose she _is something_. No more." He glanced toward the door.

"Okay, for now." Sarah saw movement by the window in the door. In came Bruce, Dick, and Alfred.

"How are you doing Sarah?" Bruce put a hand on Sarah's arm.

"Is he locked up?" Sarah turned her attention to the people coming in.

"Yes."

"These conditions are terrible." Alfred poked at something on the end table next to the bed.

"You can care for me in a few days, Alfred." Sarah turned and smiled up at the man.

"I'll make sure to have a small gathering in your honor when you come back."

"Sarah, guess what." Dick had gotten on the bed and had worked his way up next to Sarah's ear.

"Watch the tubes, squirt." Sarah growled as he jostled her IV.

"You can train with me, but you can't go on patrol with us."

"We've hit exciting times." Sarah gave a dry smile. "By the way, you might want to watch out. I'm going to get you for that shocking gum."

Dick laughed his childish laugh as he scrambled off the bed, next to Bruce.

"Felix." Bruce turned to the other man, he held out his hand. "I believe we have much to talk about, mainly concerning my charge's genetics."

Felix nodded with narrowed eyes, then followed Bruce from the room.

~ days later ~Friday~

Sarah had endured the small party to welcome her back home. Alfred had made carbonated lemonade and sugar cookies for the gathering. Bruce, Dick, Felix, Alfred, and Malinda were there. Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbra were there too, Gordon had been the first officer to arrive on the scene the night the Joker had kidnapped Sarah and Malinda. Barbra was waiting on Sarah hand and foot. "Look." Sarah finally told Barbra. "I'd rather have a friend than a servant."

"Okay." Barbra then flopped down next to Sarah on the sofa. "You're in my math class, aren't you?"

"Yeah." Sarah leaned back in the cushions and took a sip of lemonade.

"Did you skip a grade?"

"Yeah, my Psychologist suggested it."

"Harsh." They had a moment of silence as they watched the others mill around. Malinda came back into the room from using the restroom.

"Did you do it?" Sarah asked as Malinda settled down next to Sarah.

"What's going on?" Barbra leaned over to see both girls.

"We're pranking Dick." Sarah whispered.

"What did you do?" Barbra leaned closer with a conspirator tone.

"We switched his shampoo and conditioner with bleach." Sarah choked back a giggle.

"Are you sure it will do anything? His hair is black." Barbra glanced at Dick, who was playing a handheld game.

"We got the extra powerful stuff." Sarah picked up a newspaper and pretended to be reading the funnies. "The lady at the store promised it would take a jet black to a _lovely_ blonde."

~next morning~ Saturday~

Sarah woke to a scream. "Sarah! Did you do this?" Sarah heard Dick running down the hall. She struggled to sit up, as the door flew open. She began to shriek with laughter, she held her side as pain bloomed with each laugh. Dick's hair started bright blonde at the roots and faded into orange, then orange black on the very ends.

"Just you wait, I'll get you for this, Sarah." Dick could no longer hold it inside, he too began to laugh.

"What is going on?" Bruce came into the room, he stopped short when he saw Dick's hair. "You can't go out as Robin like that." Bruce then cracked a smile and chuckled as he turned and went to the kitchen for breakfast.

"I think I'll keep this for a bit and tell people that you did it to me." Dick crossed his arms.

"Go ahead, Malinda helped me, I'd say we did a pretty good job."

A grin spread across his face. "It was in my shampoo, wasn't it?"

"And your conditioner." Sarah said as she caught her breath from her laughter.

"I bet Barbra was in on it."

"Only at the end." Sarah swung out of bed. "Now shoo. I need to get ready for school."

"You're not going to practice tonight, are you?" Dick began to close the door.

"Why not?" Sarah pulled open her dresser drawers.

~ 2 mornings later ~

Sarah woke to her alarm, she ran a hand over her face and then ran it through her hair. She stopped short as the lengths fell from her fingers at her shoulders. She jumped out of bed and switched on the light as she spun around and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair which she had been able to braid to her hip bones, fell at the choppy length of her shoulders. "Dick! I'm going to kill you." Sarah broke down in tears.

She was on her knees with her face in her hands when Alfred and Bruce came in. Alfred helped her to her feet. Bruce gently touched her hair then turned to Dick, who stood in the doorway. "Did you cut her hair?"

"Yeah, but it's just a prank." Dick shrugged.

Bruce sighed and shook his head, "Dick, you took this way too far. I'll talk with you later." Bruce walked over to Sarah as Dick left. Bruce looked at Sarah's hair. "Alfred, take her to get her hair fixed instead of taking her to school. She can miss her first class."

Sarah sat sullenly in the stylists chair as more of her hair was being cut off. First her hair was being cut even. Sarah flipped through a book of haircuts, she settled on cut that was short and sweet, called a pixie cut.


	14. Kid Flash

~Monday~

Sarah tossed her head to get the new bangs out of her face; she stood outside the school's office. The principle had given her a hall pass to her second class. She looked down at the small pink slip of paper, a carbon copy of the original in the principal's office. She started walking down the hall; the hall was virtually made of trophy cases. Sarah paused to look at the gymnastic case, it looked a little sparse. Inside was a plaque that reflected Sarah's image, her bangs swept to her right, wisps framed her face, and the back was tight against her neck and sharply grew longer to curl over. Sarah turned away from the reflection and continued down to her math class.

Sarah perked up as she heard someone running down the hall; she turned around and saw a kid careen into her. Arms flailed as he tried to stop, he slammed into her, and she fell right on her bottom. "Ouch." Sarah bit out the word as she squeezed her eyes shut and felt the landing jar her ribs and arm.

"Sorry-sorry."

Sarah opened her eyes and took the hand that a ginger boy offered her. He pulled her up so fast that she dropped the papers that hadn't exploded from her grasp before.

"Are you okay?" The boy's eyes bounced to her cast.

"Yeah, I've had worse." Sarah grimly thought of the Joker.

The boy was suddenly on the ground picking up all her papers. Sarah bent over awkwardly from the brace around her ribs, and started to pick up papers too.

"Let me do it." The boy put his hands on Sarah's shoulders and pushed her back to a standing position. Sarah made a brief face at being fussed over, but the boy had gone back to picking up the papers. "Here." He handed her the messy stack of papers.

"Thanks, you're pretty fast." Sarah held the papers with her left arm and shifted through them for the pink slip.

"Oh, uh. Name's Wally West."

Sarah glanced up and saw him rub the back of his neck nervously.

"That explains it." Sarah found the pink slip. "There it is."

"What did you say?" Wally looked confused.

"Sorry, I have to get to class." Sarah turned to go. "Name's Sarah."

"What about your last name?"

Sarah turned back, "I'll have to get back to you on that one." Sarah gave a wave with her slip and disappeared into a class room.

"Miss Haven, glad you could join us."

Sarah smiled nervously at the math teacher. She hurried to an empty seat, next to Barbra. The red head helped her get her bag off and catch up.

"What happened to your hair?" Barbra whispered.

"Dick had his revenge." Sarah flipped to the page the class was on.

"The fiend." Barbra hissed.

"No talking in class."

Barbra and Sarah sat upright and stared at the board.

~ lunch time ~

Barbra carried Sarah's tray to a table, she set her try right across from Dick's.

"Hey Dick, that's the girl I was telling you about."

Sarah had settled herself in her seat; she looked up to see Wally sitting next to Dick.

"I told you, you knocked over my sister." Dick looked down at his tray.

"Go ahead and look Dick, it's not that bad." Sarah folded her arms on the table and stared at him. His head slowly came up.

He gave a small smile. "Yeah, not that bad."

"What's going on?" Wally asked as he ate his food.

"Dick cut Sarah's hair in her sleep." Barbra bit into a carrot.

"Man, you never mess with a girl's hair." Wally shoved Dick.

"She bleached my hair." Dick pointed to his still orange hair.

"That's different. You can always color it." Barbra flipped her hair over her shoulder.

Sarah smiled as she picked up her sandwich. "I'm growing my hair back out."

"Were you the girl that had her hair down to her butt?" Wally pointed his fork at Sarah.

"It was to my hips." Sarah wagged a finger at his fork.

"Big difference." Wally rolled his eyes. "So man, are you going to come over so we can try that new video game?"

"You won't be at the manor?" Sarah raised her brows at Dick and began to think of what she could do.

"I don't think I should. My stuff isn't safe for a while." Dick swallowed as he eyed Sarah and Barbra. "I can see the wheels turning."

"Hey, Sarah. Promise you won't do anything emotionally scaring." Wally turned to Sarah.

"I promise." Sarah smiled sweetly.

"You too." Wally pointed to Barbra.

"Okay."

"There, you're safe. I'll see you at 4:00." Wally stood and raced through the cafeteria. "Yo Sam! Wait up."

Dick glanced nervously between the two girls. Sarah's phone dinged, she fished it out of a pocket and read the text.

"The best revenge would be making him think we did something." Sarah grinned at the message from Barbra.

"Watching him jump will be so much fun." Sarah texted back.

"We've got fifteen more minutes till class." Barbra put her phone away.

"Good." Sarah smoothed her applesauce and began to write a math problem in it. "Do you remember this on the homework?"

"Yeah, you pretend that X is 5."

"Oh, that makes total sense." Sarah pulled out the worksheet from her bag and pushed aside her tray, it bumped into Dick's and he jumped slightly. She whizzed through the rest of the packet just before the bell rang. "Ugh." Sarah shoved everything into her bag, she slung the strap on her right shoulder, and picked up her tray. "It sounds more like a gong than a bell."

"Did you expect the sweet tolling of a hand bell rung by a school marm?" Barbra asked in a thick British accent.

"No." Sarah giggled as she dumped her food in the garbage.

"You didn't eat much, only half your sandwich and you only played in you applesauce."

"I wasn't hungry; anyway, I _worked_ in my applesauce." Sarah grinned as she started to turn down an opposite hallway from Barbra.

She stopped short as she was confronted by a crowd of boys, their ties were loosened and their school jackets were unbuttoned. "Look who we have. Sarah Wayne." A boy with dark hair, green eyes and a sharp nose stepped forward. The hall seemed suddenly empty.

"_Why isn't there anyone around?"_ Sarah glanced around, she knew with the classes Bruce had her taking; she could make it out on her own. In the end she would get in trouble, the second person always got caught.

"That's not her name. I thought it was Sarah Grayson." A boy with white blonde hair and pale blue eyes sneered at her.

"That's not it at all. It's Sarah Haven." A boy with chocolate hair and eyes joined the circle. "What happened, were you tossed from foster home to foster home?"

Sarah looked at this boy straight on, she was confused. "Is that supposed to make me angry?" Her voice was soft. She shifted her arm and felt the cast rub against her shirt. She looked at it and glared, she had forgotten about her casts, the one on her arm and the one around her ribs. She wasn't allowed much physical activity.

"You think you can come in with the Grayson boy, win a few gymnastic metals, and take the attention away from the football team?" The dark haired boy shoved Sarah's shoulder, making her drop her bag on the floor.

"Don't take any attention away or it will be necessary to break something else." The other boy kicked her bag down the hall.

"Sarah, glad to find you."

Sarah whipped around to see Wally coming around the corner; he scooped up her bag and started for them.

"The teacher was wondering where you were." Wally pushed aside the blonde boy and he gestured for her to head down the hallway.

"Punk." One of the boys shoved at Wally, but Wally had moved and the boy landed on his face.

"What's your next class?" Wally whispered in her ear.

"Science." Sarah whispered back.

"Room 240?" Wally handed her the bag back.

"Yup." Sarah shifted her bag as they rounded the next corner.

"Great. I just started in that class today." Wally threw his hands in the air as the second bell rang.

"One minute until the late bell rings." Sarah started to run down the hall, she slid to a stop outside the classroom.

"Good afternoon Miss Haven. Mr. West. Have a seat in the back." The teacher gestured to the only empty lab table. "I'll give you till the late bell to choose different lab partners for the year." Everyone jumped up as the bell rang. "Sit down." He barked to the rest of the class, who groaned and settled back in their seats.

"Do you mind?" Sarah turned to Wally.

"Naw." Wally pulled out a note book and started flipping through notes.

Sarah looked at his notes, then back to the board. "That's not what we're studying."

"It's notes I swiped from my uncle Barry."

Sarah continued to study the notes, "Is it about electricity?"

"Not really." Wally closed the notebook and looked at the board. Sarah opened a fresh page in her notebook and started drawing what she had seen. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out what was on that page, it's like energy, or speed. When applied to a human…" Sarah trailed off. After a few more sketches, "It's like a mutated gene." Sarah flipped to the back of her science book. "This is fascinating, I wonder if I can get Bruce to transfer me to a genetics class." She seemed to have forgotten about Wally as he watched her nervously.

Sarah turned to Wally, "Sorry, I've been talking to myself, haven't I?"

"Yeah, can he hear us?" Wally gestured to the teacher at the front.

"No." Sarah idly began to sketch, out of the corner of her eye she saw Wally watching her sketch. It was turning out to be a lightning bolt. "You're interested in Barry Allen's experiment?" Wally nodded. "Have you done it? I mean, if you did, the results would be cool, if it worked."

"It works." The words seemed to be out before Wally could stop them.

"Eh," Sarah smirked. "Are you Flash Jr. then?"

"It's Kid Flash, look, don't tell anyone."

"No problem."

"How'd you know?"

"I put two and two together." Sarah shrugged. "In a few minutes class will be over." She began to pack up her stuff.

"Wait, what's the assignment?"

"Page 252, 1-20, even numbers. We start a new chapter on Mondays, get ten questions every day, review on Thursdays, and tests are on Fridays. He likes the even numbered problems because the answers are not in the back of the book."

"Homework for tonight is on page 252, 1-20, even numbers."

"See?" Sarah pointed to the board as the teacher wrote the assignment down. Then the bell rang and the students filed out to their next classes.


	15. Confrontation

~that evening~

Sarah dropped her bag on the floor, she had spent the afternoon stretching with the six-year-olds. She still had hours' worth of homework and she wanted to talk to her father. "Daddy!" Sarah called out, she cringed, and the word 'daddy' seemed to make her frustration dissipate. She struggled to get her coat off, when she finally did she tossed it at the coat hook. She left her bag and began to search the manor. She struggled with the door to the small parlor. "Why is it so hard now?" Sarah muttered to herself as she put her shoulder into it and the door swung open. The room was empty, she frowned and walked quickly around the room.

"Looking for me?"

Sarah jumped and squealed. Felix was standing in the doorway. "Sit" Sarah let anger cover her surprise, she pointed at a red velvet chair and she sat opposite of the chair. Felix made his way to the chair and folded his long frame into the chair. "You've got questions to answer." Sarah crossed her arms, best she could, and Felix nodded. "First off, where were you when I got my wings?"

"When I found out I was…"

"No! Not when you found out. Where were you when it happened?" Sarah's voice began to crack.

Felix started to look worried at the beginning of emotions. "I was meeting with one of my associates."

"Associates?" Sarah fisted her hands.

Felix sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "How to explain this?" He muttered to himself. "Okay, look." Felix leaned forward and began to talk with his hands. "I meant one of my charges. A guardian angel doesn't have just one person to watch over, sometimes in the process of watching over one, another disappears. We just don't _know_ where all of our charges are."

"Why?"

"Well, we can establish a mental link, but the person has to be willing and most charges don't know about us." Felix glanced around nervously, he rubbed the back of his neck before he took a deep breath. He wiped emotion off his face and his voice began to sound cold and hard.

"Uhuh. Did Mama know?" Sarah sat on the edge of her seat.

"Yes."

"Why!" Sarah all but exploded as she jumped from her seat and glared at him.

"She thought you were mine, half angel half human. She had to know, so to expect certain things."

"So Natasha isn't my mother?" Sarah began to pace in front of the sofa.

"No."

Sarah mulled over his words, picking them apart. "Wait. _She thought…_ I'm not yours either. Who is my father?"

"Pan the Death Angel."

Sarah threw her hands in the air as she laughed. "Ha! Also," She turned and pointed a finger at Felix. "If I'm not half human then what am I?"

"It's not possible that you're half human half angel, because angel blood attacks human blood. It sees it as a threat to your genetic makeup. Your body would start to shut down to attack the human blood, starting with your nervous system, and sending mixed signals to your brain. Ultimately resulting in a mental disorder. Over half the people in asylums are half angel half human. Your mental detrition would of started when you got your wings instead of your wings." Felix spread his hands out palm up, hoping in vain that she wouldn't ask anymore.

"Argh!" Sarah gritted her teeth and slammed a hand down on the coffee table between the two of them. "I spent a year in a cage, because a drug lord thought it was fun to watch me be in pain. Watched a set of parents, I grew to love, die. I get kidnapped by the Joker, who enjoys breaking my bones with a crowbar! What kind of blood in this world does angel blood mesh well with?" Sarah's green eyes darkened with her fury.

"Note on the broken bones," Felix started nervously, grasping at straws as he fought to keep her from finding out whom she really was. "Your bones will be healed by now."

"Great, accelerated healing." Sarah rolled her eyes and yanked the cast off of her arm. "Now, does that come from my mother or father?" Sarah held Felix's gaze, challenging him to say something.

A knock sounded on the door and Alfred came in. Sarah didn't take her glare off of Felix, her hands pressed against the coffee table as she leaned on it. "Is everything alright, Miss. Sarah?"

"We're fine Alfred." Sarah's voice was calm. The door clicked shut as he left. "So, what am I?"

"If you know who you are, your mother will be able to possess your body."

"And, how do you know that?"

"Because all the schizophrenics out there are half human half demon. " Felix stood from the chair.

Sarah straightened and locked her gaze on him. "What am I?"

"Half angel, half demon." Felix bit out the words.

"Who is my mother?" Sarah crossed her arms.

"Lilith, the mother of all demons."

"Are there others like me?"

"There used to be." Felix began to pace a circle around the outside of the furniture.

"Why is that?" Sarah followed him, turning in a small circle of her own.

"They were all killed by Lilith's husband, Daemon." Felix looked up at Sarah and stopped his pacing. "Sarah, they all died at the age of 13."

Sarah stood straight, she crossed her arms and held his gaze. His eyes flickered between guilty and innocence. "This is all so muddled, that I don't know what to believe."

"Princess, you know I wouldn't do anything to hurt you. I love you."

**Okay, so a lot is revealed about her history. Please review. **


	16. Memory

~Tuesday, the week of her thirteenth birthday~ 2010

Sarah stood; feet positioned shoulder width apart, looking at the sandbag. Her fists were wrapped and up next to her face, her hair was pinned out of her face. She wore black and red Dryfit clothing, her toes curled in her sneakers before she struck.

"The sandbag is any person who has hurt you." The instructor's voice rang through the room.

Sarah made contact with the bag as she imagined, first the man who had kept her prisoner for a year, then the Joker who had abducted her several times in the past three years. The one time that bothered her the most…

_~3 years ago, age 10~ 2007_

_Sarah and Malinda were walking home from school, they were going to Malinda's house for a sleep over._

"_Malinda." Sarah stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, no one was around. _

"_Yeah?" Malinda tucked her loose hair behind her ear and looked up at Sarah, who was a little taller._

"_I know that I haven't been completely honest with you, even though you've been the first true friend I've ever had." Sarah slipped her pack off of her back. "I'll just show you." Sarah entered an alley and scanned it for people._

"_What are you showing me?" Malinda entered cautiously._

"_This," Sarah pulled her shirt over her head, leaving her tank, to cover her hair. She faced Malinda, she pressed a dog tag around her neck and gave herself an electric shock. Her wings ripped through and spread out against the brick walls._

"_You're the winged sidekick that appears with Batman and Robin sometimes." Malinda's mouth dropped open. "It makes so much more sense now."_

_Sarah arched her back and felt her wings slide back in. She pulled her shirt back on and was thankful that she wore a red one._

"_Why do you have wings?"_

_Sarah stepped out into the light. "I'm half angel, half demon."_

"_I've never heard of that." Malinda began walking again._

"_My kind are usually under guardian angel protection, but it's strange, I never heard of them either."_

"_Where's yours?"_

"_I sent Felix away last year when I had a fight with him."_

"_Oh, Your stepdad."_

"_There you are my dear."_

_Sarah whipped around to see the Joker; she practically hissed as she dropped her bag and pushed Malinda behind her. She reached for her dog tags, as her lungs filled with a gas. She couldn't smell it, but she could feel it filling her airways. Her hand didn't make it to the dog tags, her vision blurred and blackened._

_Sarah woke looking into her lap; her neck was sore as she brought it up to look out. Her wrists were ziptied to the arms on a chair, her ankles also were ziptied to the chair legs, and she felt the gag pulling at her mouth. She focused on Malinda's body laying a few feet away from her. Malinda was still out._

"_You're up earlier than I thought you would be. Shall we start the entertainment?" The Joker stepped out of the shadows. He swung a crowbar against his hand. _

_Sarah tensed, she pulled against the arms of the chair, and then she pushed against the gag with her tongue. _

"_It won't be you." The Joker stood next to Malinda's still body. "Shall we start with her legs?"_

_Sarah shook her head furiously, she was able to rock up on her toes, and then she slammed back against the concrete floor. The chair stood firm, "Stupid metal chair." Sarah thought._

_The Joker laughed and he swung the crowbar against Malinda's arm, the crack of the bone echoed in the empty warehouse. _

_Sarah groaned as she twisted her hands against the zipties. _

"_We're just beginning." The Joker continued to swing, bone after bone broke or shattered. _

_Sarah was twisting hard against the zipties when she remembered her glamour. She had been working on it and if she concentrated really hard, she could make herself smaller. She closed her eyes and frowned as she focused. She could feel herself slimming down, when a snap broke into her thoughts. Sarah observed that Malinda's hip was now broken. Sarah closed her eyes again and focused, there, her wrists slipped out. Sarah opened her eyes and saw that the Joker's back was to her; she slipped a knife out of her boot and cut away the zipties and the gag. She touched her dog tags and felt her wings blossom from her back, blood splattered the Joker as Sarah slipped her mask on, from her boot._

_The Joker turned around, he smiled. "Ah, I knew you were special."_

"_Leave her alone."_

"_She's almost gone anyway." The Joker drew a knife from one of his pockets. Sarah threw hers, it knocked his out of his hand and sliced through his skin. "Haha. You think that will stop me?"_

"_No." Sarah pushed a button on her watch, she couldn't hear the signal, only a bat would, or a computer._

_The Joker came at her with the crowbar; Sarah ducked and blocked his arm. She didn't have enough room to strike. She turned and put all her power into an elbow strike. He stumbled back, but wasn't really fazed. As she turned she had time to bring her arm up to stop the crowbar. She felt the bone break, tearing at her muscles as he tried to force the bar through her arm. Sarah stumbled back; she regained her balance and took a swing with her right arm. He blocked, sweeping her to the side. Sarah flapped her wings rapidly to stay up right. The air force from her wings pushed him back slightly. Sarah took to the air; she hovered just out of his range. Batman's voice came to Sarah, "Never leave without your tools."_

"_They're in my bag." Sarah thought to herself as she imagined it sitting on the sidewalk. The Joker moved to Malinda and placed the blade he had retrieved, against her neck._

_The Joker watched her, he reached a hand slowly behind his back and pulled out a gun. Sarah instantly saw that she had at most six shots to avoid, if he didn't reload. A shot rang out, Sarah swerved to the right. She was closer to Malinda's still form. "No, no, I have to get him away from her." Sarah's mind was yelling. Another shot, Sarah swerved wide to the left and back a bit. He didn't seem frustrated, no he seemed to enjoy the panic and dread that hung thick in the air._

"_When you come down here, I'll cut you open like a fish." He cackled._

_Sarah swallowed hard, there was nothing good about this 'man'. She knew she had joined Batman to bring men like this to justice, but she was starting to wonder if she really had it in her. Her musings got her a grazing bullet across the bone of her wing. She sucked in deeply as she stuttered in the air. It brought her low enough that the Joker was able to grab her foot and pull her to the ground. The whiplash was so hard that she cracked her head on the cement floor. She fought for consciousness, she could see, she could feel, she could hear, but she couldn't move. "Oh great, this is just wonderful." She thought. The Joker lifted her arm up and pushed it out of his way. She mentally flinched as she felt a prick starting at her ribs. It went deep and struck against her bone. She began to sweat as the blade slid down to the next rib, going down, rounding up over the bone and going back down on the other side. As he started slicing over the last rib, Sarah's nerves lit on fire. She was able to move, she rolled out of the way and struggled to the air as she held her side with her hands, her vision blurred dramatically as she tried to focus on the Joker's movements, he moved closer to Malinda. _

"_Come down, Brat." The Joker pulled the blade across Malinda's skin and red began to seep out, too quickly for Sarah's comfort. She folded her wings in and dropped full force against his body. Sarah straightened and watched for his next move; from the ground he threw a small bag at her face. Sarah caught it and crushed it. She felt small slivers of metal enter the palm of her skin. She glanced down and saw a black liquid mingle with her blood. She dimly heard the Joker laugh as her hearing dulled and her vision blurred to black._

_Sarah woke to find herself in a hospital bed, Dick lay draped over a small couch next to the window, and Bruce sat with his head leaning on his fist in a chair. Sarah saw flashes from the door, she sat up and glanced at her back, she wondered when she had brought her wings in. Then she remembered Malinda, Sarah glanced at the clock, she had to have been out for at least two hours or maybe four. "Bruce?"_

_Bruce startled awake, "How you feeling?"_

"_Like I had a run in with the Joker, as usual." Sarah picked up a pen from the bedside table and chucked it at Dick's still form. She flinched as she felt the stitches in her side, causing the pen to just grazed his arm, but it was enough to wake him. Dick came over and stood next to Bruce's chair. "Where's Malinda?"_

"_She's in another room." Bruce shifted._

"_Is she not awake yet?" Sarah messed with the buttons on the bed to make it rise to match her sitting position._

"_She's not awake." Dick received a cautious glare from Bruce._

_Sarah locked eyes with Dick and watched him lower his gaze. Then she shifted, pain shot through her, her hips hurt like fire. "What happened?" She gasped._

"_Both of your bodies showed signs of rape." Bruce watched Sarah carefully, her face turned pale. _

_Malinda's body flashed before her eyes, the cut in her neck. "Is Malinda in the coroner's office?" Sarah whispered, she hoped against hope that Malinda was anywhere but the coroner's office._

"_Yes." _

_Sarah didn't care which one had told her, she couldn't hear them anymore._

~present time~

Whomp whomp. Sarah pummeled the bag as fought against the memory.

**Yeah, so I made a jump in time so I could get going on the TV show. Please review, no one's been reviewing lately.**


	17. Video Games & the Guys

2010

"Quick reflexes! I want Quick reflexes!" The instructor's voice rang out above the thumps, groans, and thuds.

Sarah, repositioned her feet, rolling up on her toes. She swung her hips and slammed into the bag.

"Quick reflexes!"

_~2 years ago, age 11~ 2008_

"_Hey Sarah?"_

_Sarah opened one of her eyes, she was sitting cross-legged on her bed as she tried to meditate. "You've come to tell me that Roy and Wally are going home? That I'll be able to meditate in a few minutes?"_

"_Uh, no. We were going to play The Heroes' Fight or Flight. We need four players." Dick only had his head sticking into her room._

_A grin split across Sarah's face. "Count me in." She jumped off the bed and followed Dick to the game room. "I call the pistol arsenal." Sarah called into the room as she walked in the door._

"_West called it already." A boy with ginger brown hair said. He sat on the overstuffed sofa._

"_Then I claim the dagger stock." Sarah pulled her hair out of her face and wrapped a hair tie around a small ponytail. _

"_Only you would want that." Wally made a face at Sarah._

"_Did Dick claim the assassin?" Sarah dropped into the space between Roy and Wally._

"_His house, his rules." _

_Sarah snapped her head to look at Wally and raised an eyebrow as she felt Roy lean forward to look at him. _

"_You do remember that the half demon lives here too, right?" Roy asked._

"_Heh." Wally looked nervously up at Sarah._

"_Half angle too." Sarah turned back to the screen and synced her controller to the television._

"_Let's start." Dick began to navigate through the start up of the game. "Roy what character do you want?" _

"_I'll give you three guesses and the first three don't count." Sarah said dryly._

"_I don't understand." Wally crossed his arms._

"_I'll take the archer." Roy picked up his controller from the coffee table._

"_Right." Dick clicked through a few more things._

"_I get it now."_

"_Quick reflexes, West." Sarah started controlling her character._

"_Shut up, Haven." Wally grunted as she elbowed him in the ribs. "Hey! How'd your character get so close?"_

_Sarah laughed as she got her character too close for Wally's to use his pistol. "You've got all that skill I built into that character and you don't know how to use it."_

"_I do too." Wally clicked away at his controller._

"_Oaff." Sarah cringed as her character received a bullet in the shoulder and was teleported back to the start. She slipped around the fight and found Dick's character as the pistol arsenal and the archer took shots at each other._

"_Dick! Watch out!" Wally yelled at the screen as the dagger stock stabbed the assassin in the back._

"_Shoot." Dick moved to sit on the edge of the sofa as he waited to be able to play his character again._

"_Ack!" Wally clicked wildly at his controller. "What did you do?"_

"_The arrow was laced with poison." Roy gave a small smile._

"_Round one." Sarah held out her hand and Roy gave her a high five. "You do know that the poison arrow takes out two of your lives?"_

"_What?" Wally turned to look at Sarah, giving her the opportunity to have her character throw a series of daggers into his character's torso. "That's cheating."_

"_Nope, it's quick reflexes." Dick said grimly. "The combination of buttons it takes to do that move needs quick reflexes." After Sarah went toe to toe with Dick's character and lost, "Wally, you can stop clicking that. Your character is dead."_

"_Then it's all on you, bro." Wally sagged against the sofa. He watched as the archer fired at the assassin, then as the dagger stock came up behind the assassin._

_Sarah felt a vibrating hand on her back, where her wings would sprout. Without thinking she dropped her controller to the floor, she swung her left hand right into Wally's face. She heard a crunch from her backhand._

"_Ow." Wally held his nose with both hands. "My nobe ib broben." _

"_You deserved it." Sarah's character died from a poison dart. She reached over and held Wally's hands out of the way as she put Wally's nose back in place. "You heal fast."_

"_Did you touch her back?" Dick turned away from his screen as his character was shot full of poison arrows._

"_No." Wally gently touched his nose as the bruising began to fade. Wally then received a square power punch in his left shoulder. "What was that for?" Wally picked himself off the floor after Sarah had shoved him off of her lap._

"_That's the only reason she would of hit you."_

"_I was just trying to help you win the game by distracting her." Wally pouted on the floor._

"_You're cute." Sarah stayed on the sofa next to Roy as she glared down at Wally._

"_Really?" He looked strangely hopeful._

"_As adorable as a child." Sarah said dryly._

_Wally frowned as Roy put one hand on Sarah's knee and the other on the arm of the sofa to push himself up. "That was a good game." He held out a hand to help Sarah up._

_She took it. "Normally it's longer; Dick is usually harder to kill." Sarah looked questionably at Dick who was still sitting on the sofa. "Come on West, I'll race you to the kitchen for a snack." Sarah wrapped her hand around her dog tags and took to the air, she was out the door before Wally decided to take her up on the offer._

_She fell in love with the rush of air in her ears every time she flew. Her wings beat against the air and pushed forcefully against Wally, slowing him. Still he slipped under her and slid into the kitchen. Sarah chuckled as she came to a stop; she flapped a few times and eased herself to the floor. Wally was splayed out, half on the table, and half on the chairs. _

"_How did you not splatter blood on us?" Roy came into the kitchen with Dick._

"_Batman figured out a frequency that stops my blood flow, but still allows my wings to.." Sarah paused as she tossed sandwich ingredients out of the fridge._

"_Sprout." Dick finished for her._

"_Yeah." Sarah closed the fridge, holding a bottle of lemonade, she took a sip as Wally made sandwiches for all of them._

"_Here" He held a plate out to all of them almost simultaneously._

"_Eat mine. I'm not hungry." Sarah took another sip._

"_Are you sure? Sarah, you didn't eat breakfast or lunch." Dick asked as a look of concern crossed his face._

"_I'm not hungry. Back off!" Sarah hissed, literally, as she felt fangs in her mouth. Her eyes grew big; she used a spoon to look at her reflection._

"_You're teeth were all sharp for a moment." Wally bit into her sandwich._

_Sarah sighed, "Felix said I might get them when I'm angry." Sarah's shoulders sagged. "I'll go tell Batman."_

"_Just don't get angry."_

_Sarah turned to see Wally with a tub of ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other. Her face was blank, only her eyes narrowed a bit, "No duh."_

**Okay, so there haven't been any reviews since chapter ten. I could use some encouragement, starting to get down from no one seeming to show interest. Is it not as good as before? Please review, be honest, just not cruel.**


	18. Named

_Sarah walked down the hall, she heard a rustle of paper behind a door. She opened the door to the small parlor, Bruce sat reading a paper in one of the red velvet chairs. The head line read "Winged Vigilante" the sub head line read "Who is the winged vigilante that is now with Batman and Robin?"_

"_Bruce?" Sarah stepped into the room and settled on the sofa across from him with the coffee table between them._

_He folded the paper and set it on the coffee table, "We should choose a name for you." He tapped the picture of her, she was suspended in the air, her wings were out at full span, and her arms were crossed in her spandex suit of dark red. Her face wasn't covered, due to her glamour, her hair was jet black in a braided twist, her eyes were as blue as sapphires, and her face had an oval look with sharp cheek bones and a beauty that distracted men._

_Sarah shook her head to bring herself back to why she had come to Bruce in the first place. "There's been a development." Sarah watched as Bruce leaned back in his chair, he looked thoughtful and pressed his fingers together. "When I got angry at Dick, my canine's sharpened."_

_Bruce nodded, "Should we tell Felix? But first, why did you get mad at Dick."_

_Sarah ducked her head, "He kept asking if I was okay because I'm not eating."_

"_He's just concerned. You should tell him that you don't need to eat as much as humans."_

_Sarah looked up and rolled her eyes. "Then I tell him that what my demon half craves blood and flesh? That my angel half craves nothing, because I'm immortal?" _

"_I believe the immortality could come from your demon side too."_

_Sarah met his stare, "I haven't come to grips with the fact that I'm immortal, much less the fact that someone plans to kill me when I turn thirteen."_

_Bruce seemed to be mulling the last part over in his mind. "I'll tell him, then." Bruce put a hand on her shoulder. _

"_Okay." Sarah hugged her arms and brought her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them._

"_For now, how about we invite the boys in to help you choose a name for you?"_

"_Okay." Sarah relaxed, she let her feet drop to the floor as she let the vulnerable look leave her face. She stood and followed Bruce into the kitchen._

"_Dick, I think it's time to think of a name for Sarah."_

"_I have one." Wally raised his hand, he had the empty tub of ice cream sitting in front of him. "Demon Shadow."_

_Sarah sat on a bar stool next to the counter, she resisted doing a face palm. "I'm a good guy."_

"_Oh, right."_

"_What about, Angel of light, or mercy, or justice?"_

_Sarah turned to look at Dick, "First, that's a playoff of what half of I am, just like Wally did. Second, all three would be a mouthful. Third, if we shortened the last two it would be Mercy or Justice. Like the hospital or 'the justice league'."_

"_What do you suggest?" Dick crossed his arms and glared at her._

"_What about Red Alice."_

"_Why?" Dick sat down across from her, he leaned on his elbows and propped up his chin with his hands._

_Sarah shrugged, "Red is my favorite color and 'Alice' is what you called me when I met the hawks._

"_Red Alice makes me think of Alice in Wonderland." Wally shuddered at his place at the table. "Like a dead Alice, or zombie Alice."_

"_It would strike fear into criminals' minds." Sarah pretended to muse about it. "But I don't really like it anymore."_

"_Do you have any ideas Roy?" Bruce asked as he pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge._

_Sarah turned to look at the brown ginger standing next to the doorway. She had forgotten about him temporarily. _

"_What about Spector? More like a ghost, could mean demon or angel."_

"_What about birds with black wings?" Wally pointed toward Sarah's back. "Or something to do with your glamour?"_

"_Like Raven or Crow?" Sarah asked dryly as her shoulders slumped and she adopted the same position as Dick. Her blonde hair slid over her shoulders._

"_What about Red-winged Blackbird?" Wally moved from the table to sit next to Dick at the counter. Bruce leaned against the end of the counter, watching them._

"_First, it's a mouthful, second, I have black wings." Sarah muttered._

"_Just a second." Dick pulled out his phone and entered a search. "Blackbird, crow, grackle, raven, swan, crane, and storm-petrel."_

"_Uunn." Sarah slumped completely, till her forehead rested on the counter. "I give up." She muttered._

"_What was that?"_

_Sarah stiffened slightly, "Nothing." She took a deep breath. "It was nothing, Bruce." She sat up. "Okay, the choices are; Demon Shadow, Angel of Light, Mercy, or Justice, Red Alice, Spector, Blackbird, Crow, Grackle, Raven Swan, Crane, or Storm-petrel."_

"_You could shorten Demon Shadow to just Shadow." Wally was trying to be helpful._

**There you go, the next chapter. I'll also let you choose her superhero name, you can tell me in the reviews, also add your own if you want.**


	19. Pain

_Sarah sat on top of one of the highest point of Wayne manor. She had beaten Dick to the top, who had bet her fifty bucks that she couldn't make it before him. They had just seen Roy and Wally home via zeta tube. _

_He now hauled himself over the edge and looked up at her siting on a gargoyle. _

"_I'm fifty bucks richer." Sarah smiled at him._

"_You really made a gale down there when you took off."_

"_I like speed." Sarah was slightly distracted, she was thinking about the word he had used. "I got it!" She jumped to her feet, her wings fluttering slightly to keep her balanced._

"_Got what?" Dick looked out over the trees and again was thankful that they were out in the country where no one could see Sarah's wings._

"_My name." Sarah turned to Dick. "I'll be Shadow Gale, Shadow for short."_

"_Like what Wally said?" Dick began to climb out to sit next to her._

"_Yeah, he has a good idea once in a great while."_

"_Capitalize the word great." Dick settled next to her as she too sat down._

_After a few moments of silence, Dick broke it. "I'm sorry I made you angry."_

"_It's not your fault, I'm just touchy about anything to do with Lilith." Sarah wrapped her arms around herself and wished she had grabbed her jacket. She folded her wings so to block the wind._

"_Want to talk about it?" Dick reached out and rubbed her hands to warm them up._

"_No." Sarah paused. "But I will." Sarah closed her eyes, so not to see his reaction. "I've always eaten because it was expected of me, but being part angel, I don't have to eat. I don't need food to survive, I'm immortal. My demon half only wants blood or flesh. Part of me is always hungry and the other part is never hungry. I'm scared of my demon side; Felix says that when I die I'll be given a split second to choose to become an angel or a demon. If I'm under the influence of my demon side I will choose it. I don't want to, I want to be good. Because there's more angel blood in me, it's easier to be good." Sarah felt tears pushing against her eyelids as she felt a doorway opening in her mind. Thick, comforting darkness edged the doorway, trying to squeeze through the crack she had opened. Felix's warning about being emotional screamed through her mind. She slammed the door shut, wiped at her eyes, sat up, pulled her wings in, and wiped expression off her face. _

"_What's today's date?"_

"_The thirteenth."_

_Sarah shuddered as she started climbing down the manor, hand over hand, she put her concentration into the climbing; refusing to think about the sister/brother moment she had almost shared. If she was going to block Lilith or any demon from entering her mind, she had to let go of anger and sadness, the triggers of that supposed door._

_~ 1 year ago, age 12~ 2009_

"_Sarah if I up the electrical charge on your dog tags again, it'll be enough to kill a cow." Batman sat at his computer tinkering with Sarah's tags._

"_Thanks." She rolled her eyes as she sat on one of the pipes from the ceiling. She wore her black and red spandex suit, her eyes glittered blue against the dim light and her hair was black and bound out of the way._

"_Maybe we should test your immunity?"_

"_Not interested." Sarah swung down from the pipes and landed behind Batman. _

_He turned around and put a clamp on her hand, "It wasn't a question." He flipped a switch before Sarah could react. An electric current ran through her body, a warm buzz filled her limbs, all the way to the tips of her wings. In her mind she shut off the path to her brain, she pushed the electricity away, to her fingertips. She slammed her hand down on the chair and gripped tight as the current continued to fill her body. Her wings shook and she gritted her teeth as the power went up. She tasted blood in her mouth as she bit her cheek, the current coursed through her body in strong waves. The current would relax enough for her to draw breath, and then freeze her limbs. Then Sarah peeled her fingers from the chair and worked the clamp off of her hand. The electricity was still in her body, now it had seemed to forge to her veins. She threw a hand toward the middle of the cave and focused on the electricity, imagining it moving through her fingertips, into the training area. The electricity jumped from her fingers to explode on the training mat. Her body shook violently from the exertion, her glamour dropped as Batman pushed back his cowl._

"_Well done, Sarah." Bruce wrapped an arm around her shoulders and helped her walk to a chair. "Perhaps with practice you can control it."_

_Sarah pressed a hand over her heart, to feel its pace. "It's not racing, like it was normal to have electricity racing through my body." Sarah was floored; she looked up at Bruce with curiosity in her eyes._

"_Immunity." Bruce went to a table and picked up a vial, needle, and syringe. "I'll give you a sedative to help you sleep tonight."_

"_Mmm, sleep. I don't really want to control electricity, it's too much responsibility." Sarah sighed and held out her arm for the needle. Even as she felt Bruce press the needle into her arm, she felt the sweet peace of sleep take over as her body began to repair itself._

**Okay, thank you Gispry1 for the idea, I needed one. Anyway, the next chapter Sarah/Shadow is going to meet someone very important in her life… **


	20. Review, Bodyguard, & Italian

**I'm really sorry for the gap in my updates, I've been doing research to make sure the time line is right.**

_March, Friday 26__th__ 2010_

_Sarah pressed her phone between her ear and her shoulder as she pulled up her pajama pants. She could hear the ringing as she buttoned up her shirt over a camisole. "Pick up, pick up." She muttered as she went into her bathroom and brushed her hair._

"_Hello Princess."_

"_Hi Daddy." Sarah put down the brush and started for the bed. "Was just wondering if we could go over everything, before my birthday?"_

"_Sure thing. Where do you want me to start?" _

"_From the beginning, I guess." Sarah pulled back the covers on the bed and curled up under the comforter._

"_You were born April first at 12:00 am."_

_Sarah let out a soft chuckle._

"_Your mother gave you to me to hide you from Daemon. Natasha was one of my charges, she knew about my job already so I asked her to help me raise you, as our own. She wanted to give you as much of a normal childhood as we could, so we didn't tell you. When you were about to turn seven I had lost contact with one of my charges, so I went looking for them. I'm sorry." His voice sounded far away, as if trying to remember everything he had ever told her._

"_I've forgiven you by now." Sarah twirled a strand of hair around her finger. "What about all the attributes I've developed, will develop, or might develop?"_

"_One: your wings, from your father."_

"_Pan, the death angel. How come I've never heard of him other than from you?"_

"_He has a very demanding job." Felix seemed slightly nervous, but recovered quickly._

"_I guess that's right." Sarah yawned._

"_Two: your glamour, from your mother, that she uses to seduce males."_

"_I just use it for crime fighting." Sarah stiffened._

"_I know. Three: Anger & Sadness trigger a doorway to open in your mind for possession. Which just comes with being half demon. Four: Sharpened canines during angry outbursts, from your demon half. Five: immortality, not indestructible, but immortal. Six: crave blood and flesh, demon half. Seven: shadow travel, sporadic and unreliable, connected to your thoughts and from your demon half. It's very unreliable, don't try it, it's dangerous, okay?" _

"_Okay." Sarah's breathing was becoming steady and she yawned._

"_Sarah, whatever you do, don't trust Daemon. No matter what. I love you." The phone went dead._

April 1st Thursday 2010 6:30 am

Sarah heard her alarm blaring; she turned it off and stumbled into the kitchen. "Immortal hybrid, drunk on sleep, reporting for breakfast." Sarah ran a hand through her hair as Alfred put a plate in front of her.

"I'm glad you can joke about that, Miss Sarah."

"Morning." Dick came into the kitchen with his hair sticking in all directions and his eyes blurred with sleep. He brightened when he saw Sarah. "How does it feel to be thirteen?"

"I'm alive." Sarah grinned as she started on her breakfast, then she took off for a quick shower, dress in the school uniform, brush her teeth, braid her hair, and she started for the door.

"Sarah."

Sarah paused with her hand on the door handle; she turned around as her shoulder strap slid to the crook of her elbow.

"Today, you don't leave my sight. You're coming to the office with me."

"I can't be under surveillance for a whole year."

"Something doesn't feel right about Felix. He said that at age thirteen, Daemon would be able to kill you. Why can't he kill you before or after, why can't you make contact with Lilith or Pan?"

"He raised me; he would never do anything to put me in harm's way." Sarah let her bag fall to the floor; she took a strong defensive stance.

"So did the Graysons, so did I, so did Natasha, who are you going to trust? Felix wasn't there the day you got your wings; he wasn't there for you at all. He showed up once, the rest of the time has been phone calls."

Sarah's shoulders slumped as she thought it over, "I'll go change before we go to the office."

9:00 am

Sarah walked into the lobby with Bruce; she took in the milling of people in suits.

"Mr. Wayne!" A woman with soft brown curls, dark blue eyes, a round face, and in a blue suit hurried up to them. "The representative from China is here."

"I thought that was tomorrow."

"It is, but he is upset." The woman paused and glanced down at Sarah. "He won't appreciate a child in the meeting."

Sarah frowned at being called a child.

"I understand." Bruce put a hand on Sarah's shoulder. And he motioned the woman forward. "Sarah this is Natalie Dray, my secretary. I'm going to have you stay with her."

"Sir, I…"

"Miss Dray, you won't notice her around. I also want you to have a guard with the two of you at all times. We received a threat on her life a few days ago."

"Oh dear." Miss Dray put a hand on Sarah's shoulder and gently pulled Sarah in front of her. "I'll get someone from Protective Services."

"Good," Bruce turned and left.

"My office is this way."

Sarah followed Miss Dray into the spacious office; the walls were lined with filing cabinets. "I would think that Wayne Industries would all be digital."

"It is." Miss Dray motioned for Sarah to sit on a small sofa near the desk, in front of a window. "We keep hard copies of the most important things. I'll find you something to do before I get a guard." She sat down in her chair and opened her laptop.

"No bother, I brought my school work." Sarah pulled out her own laptop and began clicking away at the keyboard.

Miss Dray picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Hello, I would like a personal guard for today… I would like to look at the resumes quickly… My email is waynetech& …" Miss Dray clicked through a few resumes then she dialed the number again. "Hello, Natalie Dray again. I would like to hire Jay Devlin… Have him come to Wayne industries and ask the main desk for Natalie Dray's office… Thank you, goodbye."

"Who's Jay Devlin?"

"He had military training, worked for the secret service, CIA, FBI, and SWAT." Miss Dray clicked away at her keyboard.

"How old is he?" Sarah turned from her school work to look at Miss Dray's profile.

"His resume says twenty five."

"Seven years of training, assuming that he started in the army at age eighteen."

"He comes from a military family; I'd say there is more than seven years of training."

Sarah turned back to her work.

10:30 am

"Natalie Dray?"

Sarah and Miss Dray looked up at the man standing in the doorway. He had on a suit and tie, his hair was bleach blond in a high and tight, his eyes were bright gray. He had a square, angular jawline.

"Mr. Devlin?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

From the way he stood, Sarah could tell he carried a gun and there was a military grade knife in his boot.

"This is Sarah Haven, she will be your client."

"Sarah Haven, I've heard that name before." His gaze swept over Sarah. "Bruce Wayne's ward."

"One of them." Sarah studied him, with the same calculating that Batman had taught her to.

"You will have to wait to figure out payment when Mr. Wayne is done with his meetings. For now, they received a threat on Sarah's life."

"How?"

Miss Dray held out a hand toward Sarah.

"A note."

"Are the police on it?"

"They haven't gotten anywhere on it."

Mr. Devlin nodded and stood by Sarah as she worked on her school work, at varied times; he would scan the view outside the window.

5:00 pm

"Sarah, I'm sorry that I had so many meetings today." Bruce walked into the office, loosening his tie.

"That's okay." Sarah leapt up from the sofa and swung her bag onto her shoulder.

"What did you do for lunch?"

"Miss Dray ordered pizza from that new pizza parlor down around the corner."

"I've been meaning to try that place." Bruce settled his gaze on Mr. Devlin. "The guard I had Miss Dray hire?"

"Yes, Sir." Mr. Devlin held out a hand for a handshake. "Call me Jay."

Bruce nodded and turned to Sarah. "Where do you want to eat supper?"

"Somewhere Italian."

"How about I drive? I know a good Italian restaurant."

"Then we can talk business over supper." Bruce put a hand on Sarah's shoulder and headed out for the car.

5:30 pm

Sarah settled into the old vinyl booth and she ordered in perfect Italian.

"You know Italian." Jay stated after he had ordered.

"I pick up languages easily. Many of them seem familiar to me" Sarah began to fold her napkin.

"You would be a valuable asset in the military."

"I don't like to be idle, I like learning new things." Sarah's napkin turned into a pair of wings.

Jay looked at the folded napkin in interest.

"Jay, what's your usual wage?" Bruce asked as the server brought them their food.

Sarah turned and began to take mental notes on the other diners.

6:00 pm

"I'm going to the lavatory." Sarah stood from her seat and headed for the restrooms.

"I'll stand outside the door." Jay got up and followed her.

In the empty hallway, Sarah paused; she heard movement at the end of the hall. A man rounded the corner, "Hello Princess, I've waited a long time to meet you. I wish your mother could see you."

**Duhn Duhn …**


	21. Angel's Breath

Sarah stiffened; the man had black hair and eyes. His build was tall and sturdy, behind him black, leathery wings unfolded. "I've waited so long to meet you, my daughter."

Suddenly a bright flash of light blinded Sarah and sent her stumbling back, her body slammed against the floor.

~unknown location~

Sarah woke flat on her back; she saw a dim light bulb hanging up high. She tried to sit up and found her wrists and ankles bound to a table with leather straps. Next she tried to move her head, but it too seemed held in place. She heard movement and soon Felix's face came into view, he had his hands on her neck. "What are you doing?"

Felix looked at her face, then back at her neck. "Plan B."

"What was Plan A?" Sarah fiddled with the strap on her left wrist.

"Controlling you."

"Why?"

"Because you're an important figure to the demons."

"How?"

"Princess."

Sarah swallowed and began to become concerned about what 'plan b' was."

"What's plan b?" Sarah felt the strap on her left loosen.

"Killing you."

Sarah then felt the prick of a needle in her neck. "I hate you."

"Why is that? I love you." Felix grinned and took a step back.

"Everything you ever told me seemed muddled, hastened, lies. I defended you and you are trying to kill me."

"I bet you have a long list of people you hate."

"I've got a blank space and I'll write your name." Sarah started fiddling with the right strap when Felix turned his back.

"Ha. You are a daydream, a ghost, a thought." Felix sprouted his wings. "You were supposed to be my revenge. But things didn't go as planned, so I'll have to destroy everything about you."

Sarah had freed her right hand and her head; she pulled a dagger out of her boot and sliced away the straps on her ankles. "You're wrong." She stood up off the table. "I'm your worst nightmare dressed _like_ a daydream."

As Felix turned around, Sarah threw her dagger; it buried itself into his chest. She was on top of him, turning the blade. "My life isn't a _game_ that you love to play, I don't like players. By the way, I've developed immunity to any poison."

"Except Angel's Breath, when in liquid form, it is toxic to demon blood." Felix choked out the sentence.

"Mine was thinned by yours." Sarah gritted her teeth as she turned the blade again.

"It's still there." A flash of pain crossed his face.

"What are you?"

"I'm fallen, because of your mother."

Sarah withdrew her dagger and stumbled back into the shadows cast by the dim light. The poison was beginning to burn along her veins. She had lost so much blood when she needed a transfusion, that the blood in her veins was three fourths angel blood. She hated to know what the poison would do to more than a fourth of demon blood.

"No one can save you, not even that petty archer with his miracle herb."

Sarah felt her footing go out from under her, she fell into darkness, and with her heart midway in her throat she summersaulted and landed on her back.

She struggled to stand up and found that her surroundings were different. The walls seemed to be blue with stone in the design; she looked up from the wood floors and saw an ornate bedroom. The trip had left her breathless, she struggled to get oxygen.

"Who's there?"

Sarah cast her fevered gaze toward the voice, Roy wavered in her vision.

"Sarah? How'd you get here?"

"Not sure." Sarah felt like her voice was too loud, Roy's rang in her head. Sarah's knees grew weak and she stumbled to the floor. "Poison." She muttered as Roy picked her up and carried her out into the hall.

"What was that racket?" Oliver met them in the hall as Sarah faded out.

3:00 am

Sarah's mind woke first, she gained her hearing, then her sense of smell and touch, and she tasted the bitter herb in her mouth. She opened her eyes as soon as she was able to move. "Tell me I'm not dead." Her voice cracked, Roy and Oliver appeared at her side, and Oliver offered her a cup as he held her head up. Her eyes then latched onto Roy's. "Sorry."

"Drop by anytime you are on Death's doorstep; when I'm in the middle of changing clothes."

Sarah blushed slightly when she saw that he was shirtless, she tore her gaze away from his chest and looked at her lap. "I'll be fine if you both want to get dressed."

"Go on Roy." Oliver sent Roy from the room. "I already got dressed; Roy was too worried to leave your side."

Sarah blushed slightly and suddenly thought of Dick and Bruce. "Have you contacted Batman?"

"He's somewhere in the shadows." Oliver cast a glance around the room.

"I'm here." He appeared next to Sarah, "Can you tell us what happened?"

"There was a man in the hallway, he called me his daughter. Then a bright flash of light. I woke up strapped to a table, Felix injected me with Angel's Breath. I think Lilith and Daemon are my parents and Felix kidnapped me. He said I was his revenge. He called me a princess. He meant to control me." Sarah had worked her way into a sitting position and her vision swam as she got slammed with a headache. She leaned forward till the dizziness passed.

"Do you know where you came from, how you got to Roy's… to Oliver's house?"

"Maybe shadow travel, it hurt so much. I don't ever want to do it again." Sarah's voice was muffled. "I killed him."

"What?" Bruce's tone made her look up.

"I killed him." Sarah's face was blank.

"You'll be fine." Batman scoped her up and headed for the zeta tube. Sarah closed her eyes against the movement of her vision.

"What's going on?" Roy came down a set of stairs. "She can't be stable yet." He reached out and gripped Sarah's hand momentarily as Batman walked by.

"I'll be fine." Sarah muttered.

"The Batcave is better equipped for this situation than your hide out." He stepped into the zeta tube.

"_Recognized."_ Sarah flinched at the voice, it rang through her skull. _"Batman." _ Sarah pressed a hand to her ear and focused on the beating of her heart.

**There's 2-3 tidbits, Easter eggs, golden nuggets, whatever you want to call them, in this chapter. I wonder if you can see what I'm talking about.**

**Gispry1, I really like your idea.**


	22. Clarity

April 2nd Friday 2010 9:00am

Sarah rolled over; she felt her cheek press against cool cotton. She opened her eyes against the fabric, her lashes scraped the pillow case. She reached up and pushed her hair out of her face. Her room was dark, light filtered through the curtains and shown under them. She pushed at the covers and sighed when they flopped back into place. She pushed again and untangled her feet from the sheet as she sat up. Her head was slightly light, she looked down and saw that she was still in her camisole, zip up, jacket combo with her blue jeans. Only her shoes had been removed before she had been placed in bed. _"Only Alfred would think of that."_ Sarah wiggled her toes in her florescent, multi colored socks. Then she swung her feet to the edge. _"I feel like I slept off a hangover, not that I know what one is like."_ Sarah smiled to herself. She shed her jacket and zip up before she walked over to the window. She used both hands to pull back the curtains. The light blinded her momentarily as her eyes adjusted to the brightness. She glanced at her desk that was scattered with papers. _"I learned a lot last night, whether I want to admit it or not."_ She left the window and picked up a sheet of legal paper, _"This is everything Felix told me, it's so complicated and confusing, lies and truth mixed together."_ Sarah crumpled the sheet into a ball and tossed it toward a trash can. _"Who do I trust to tell me the truth?"_ Sarah took a quick shower, braided her hair, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. _"Who knows the truth, Natasha surely doesn't, Felix is dead, I don't know if Pan exists, Daemon might, Lilith might." _ Sarah now had her hand on the doorknob, she glanced at her watch to see that she had spent an hour musing and getting ready. She wasn't sure if it was worth it to go to school. Especially since she had dropped back a grade, she really didn't feel like dealing with Dick or Barbra, at least Wally had moved a couple years ago. She opened the door and looked to her left, the hallway was empty. Then she looked to her right and her heart sank. Jay Devlin was standing next to her door.

"Good morning."

Sarah gave him a strained smile as she stepped out into the hall. "What are you still doing here?"

"Your father assigned me to protect you." He went back to staring straight ahead.

Sarah watched him as she crossed her arms and frowned. _"Who does he mean? Felix, the one who started to raise me as his own. I'm pretty sure I killed him. Or, Pan, if he exists, or Bruce, he is on Bruce's payroll for at least a day. But Bruce is my guardian, not my father, by law. What if Daemon is my father?"_ "Who would that be?"

Jay turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Look." Sarah put her hands on her hips. "I'm not some spoiled rich brat. I know that you saw at least part of what happened last night and you're still here, not talking to the media. So who are you really working for?"

"Since you want everything out in the open…"

"Yes." Sarah's voice held an annoyed tone.

"I am Daemon's right hand; I've been tracking you down since the day you disappeared, from Italy, to Spain, to England, to France, to Canada, to Germany, then to the United States. Then to Star City, I followed the circus, one city behind, and then I stayed in Gotham to watch you."

"You didn't do a very good job." Sarah thought about the Joker.

Jay kept his mouth shut, he watched her expression. "I have no excuses for what happened."

A flicker of surprise went over Sarah's face, that's what she had been expecting. "When did I disappear?"

"Thirteen days after you were born."

"Thirteen?" Sarah rubbed her temples.

"Thirteen is a special number for you. By thirteen weeks I found you in Italy, by thirteen months I found you in Spain. On the thirteenth day of every month your parents could connect with you and feel what you were feeling."

Sarah wondered if her year in the cage if they had felt the pulse of electricity. "Who are my parents?" Sarah gripped her arms and felt herself rising on her toes as she waited for his answer.

"Lilith and Daemon."

"But Felix said that I was half angel half demon." Sarah rocked back onto her heels.

"Do you believe everything he told you?" Wallace almost seemed amused.

"I suppose not." Sarah glanced away and briefly rubbed her arms. "I'm guessing he mixed truth with lies."

"Which, lead to his end?"

Sarah looked at him curiously.

"Mr. Wayne didn't have much choice but to fill me in."

"Does he know?" Sarah vaguely gestured with her hand. She was indicating all the things he had told her and was grateful that he seemed to understand.

"I've filled him in. In fact Daemon is with him in one of the parlors."

Sarah stared down the hall, she began to zone out, and then her training brought her to attention. "So, Lilith the mother of demons and Daemon the king of demons are my parents."

"Makes you the princess of demons."

"One thing is bothering me, two actually." Sarah paused. "One: why do I have feathered wings instead of ones like Daemon?"

"Simply because you're a female and number two?"

"Was the reason Daemon couldn't make contact with me because he had to wait thirteen years like I was taken at thirteen days?"

"Yes. Anything else?"

"How come I bleed like crazy when I take my wings out?"

"You have to _want_ them to come out. Your body is acting on a subconscious command to keep them hidden. You're not fully confident about them."

"You seem really knowledgeable for someone of your age."

His expression seemed to say _"And you're thirteen."_ But he said something else. "I'm older than twenty five." After about four seconds of silence. "Would you like to go see Daemon?"

Sarah nodded; she appreciated the fact that he hadn't called Daemon her father again. Not that she was sure why. "What about Lilith?" Sarah saw Jay's shoulders tense before he forced them to relax.

"She killed herself after one of the times she connected with you. She said you were in so much pain and she couldn't take it away from you so she couldn't bear it anymore."

Sarah gritted her teeth. "It was only for a year, they only felt it once a month."

"She had no way of knowing it would only be for a year."

Sarah still had her jaw clamped tight, but she wasn't as angry. Lilith had wanted to take the pain away from her.

**Sarah's not too thrilled with having to relearn what she is, or that she killed someone face to face. It'll come back to haunt her.**


	23. Father Daughter Time

"Hello Sarah." Daemon stood from his seat. "I'm sure you're confused."

"No kidding." Sarah sat down in one of the armchairs; she pulled her legs up so she sat with them crossed.

"I'd like to do my best to clear everything up. Ask me anything." Daemon sat back down and folded his hands.

"Jay told me quite a few things when I came out of my room."

"Did he? That's good." Daemon glanced at Jay who was standing next to the door.

"What kind of kingdom is a demon kingdom?"

"Mine probably isn't what you're thinking of. I take care of the dead souls, the kingdom isn't very well known. Our family isn't very powerful."

"You keep dead souls in check." Sarah's sarcasm was starting.

"Yes, I suppose the job is important. Ourselves, rely on our wings, teeth, and strength to get us by."

"What about Shadow travel?"

Daemon flinched. "Very risky, we don't have a good grip on that. Have you used it?"

"Last night."

"Right, but it's very risky. You could end up anywhere if your thoughts strayed."

"It was painful." Sarah remembered the feeling of no air in her lungs. "If Lilith is the mother of all demons, then I have a lot of brothers and sisters?"

"Half siblings, you're the only one that is my heir."

"That's a humbling thought." Sarah noticed the tea tray that Alfred had put on the coffee table. She reached forward and began to pour the hot water over a lemon slice in a cup.

"You have many years before you need to worry about that."

Sarah sat back in the chair to let her drink steep.

"I have no plans to remove you from this place, if that's what you would like. I would like for Jay to stay on as your body guard."

Sarah glanced over at Bruce and from his expression realized that Daemon had no idea about her being a superhero. "That won't be necessary. Have you heard of the Shadow Gale?"

"I believe I have." Daemon rubbed his chin and studied her.

"I'm the Shadow Gale."

"Even with the events that happened last night, the media will be expecting something along the lines of a body guard for you as Sarah Haven." Bruce pointed out. "Someone who understands your position better would be good."

Daemon glanced down at his watch. "I've got to leave." He pulled a card from his jeans and handed it to Sarah. "It's my number." He stood and Sarah and Bruce stood. "I can see myself out, don't bother yourselves." He gave Sarah a warm smile before he left.

"I'll tell the media that in light of recent events and past we have decided to assign you a body guard and because you're a girl."

"The media will give what for on the feminism part." Sarah calmly sipped her drink; she pursed her lips and added some sugar to it.

"Have to stay in character as Bruce Wayne." He walked by her and patted her on the head.

"I'm not a kid." Sarah tested her drink again.

Bruce just smiled and walked out the door.

**So I've gone back and made a bunch of edits, I'm pulling down chapters and up loading them again. Straightening things out so they aren't so confusing. Chapters 12 -22**


	24. Thoughts

April 2nd 2010 3:16pm

Sarah lay gazing up at the canopy over her bed; the white lace edge filtered the sunlight. She had her legs straight and her feet crossed at the ankles between her gaze and the canopy. One sock was neon yellow and the other was bright magenta, her jeans were faded blue, her camisole was dappled red due to the shadows and sunlight. The giant windows in her room had their curtains pulled back; Sarah turned her face toward the beam of light. Specks of dust floated in the light, she half closed her eyes. She could just see her lashes through the light. Her blonde hair was loose and spewed out around her head against the stark white comforter. Her green eyes lightened due to the direct sunlight. Her mind buzzed so fast that she had gone into a stupor; to the world she was relaxed, half asleep.

Sarah let out a small yelp of surprise when her phone started vibrating against the wood of her nightstand. As she reached for her phone, the door opened quickly and Jay stuck his head inside the room. She glanced over her shoulder and waved him off with one hand as she brought the phone to her ear with the other.

"Hello, Barbra." Sarah settled cross-legged, with her back against a pile of pillows.

"Dick said you had a family issue, so you couldn't come to school."

Sarah could hear chatter in the background as the students were leaving school. "My dad showed up." Sarah's gaze settled on the door, watching it.

"Um." There was a pause. "Felix?"

Sarah gave a grim smile; sometimes it was hard to remember who knew what secrets. "No, my birthfather."

"Sarah, I can tell that you don't want to talk. I want you to know that I'm here for you to talk to. I know you told her everything, I know I can't take her place, but I'm here for you."

Sarah's heart clenched, so hard, she physically felt the pain in her chest. She hunched over till her forehead rested in the bedding. She knew exactly who Barbra was referring to. Tears rode on the surface as the bloody face rose against her eyelids. Sarah flinched away from the image as if a knife had sliced through her heart. "I never told her everything." Sarah dropped the phone on the bed as a dark hard lump began to build in the middle of her lungs; it pulsed, fought to push the air out.

"Sarah? Sarah?!" Barbra's voice came from the phone.

"I got to stop the pain." Sarah hung up and turned away, her eyes were empty as she looked for something to stop her emotional pain. Walls she had built up were pushed away, crumbling to dust. She picked up a pair of scissors, she gripped the handles, and tears ran down her face. "Cowards way." Sarah slammed them into the trash can. She then stumbled into the bathroom. "I want to be numb." Sarah held the pain killer bottles so tight that her knuckles turned white. "Yet, it shows me that I'm alive." Sarah shook as she opened each bottle and poured the pills into the toilet. The water turned faded pink as it swirled and went down. She shook so hard and she tensed as she emptied her stomach.

The door slammed open, Sarah looked over her shoulder, and Bruce put a hand on her back. "Barbra called, she was concerned."

Sarah slowly stood, she gave a grim smirk. "She thought I was going to kill myself." Sarah turned away, stared at the wall; slowly she traced the damask wallpaper with a finger. "Bruce, I need to feel another pain. I need to forget Malinda."

"Go to the gym, I'll have a bag ready for you." Bruce briefly rested a hand on her shoulder, hesitated as if unsure what to do, then he left.

6:30pm

"How long has she been at it?" Dick crossed his arms as he watched Sarah from across the gym. He had changed into a pair of nylon shorts and a sleeveless top to work with Sarah for a bit.

"Since 3:25 p.m." Bruce had followed Dick in, to check up on Sarah. "She started on the punching bag and moved to the dummy." Bruce watched as Sarah grabbed a pair of rings as she leapt through the air.

"Barbra told me about the call. Do you think she'll do what she did when Malinda died?"

"Train every spare moment, run on 2-3 hours of sleep each day, read when I refused to let her in the gym?" Bruce watched Sarah for a few seconds. "Not for as long as she did then."

Worry passed over Dick's face as he imagined how ragged and worn Sarah had been. It had been months before the nightmares had ceased.

"Master Bruce, supper is ready. If you'd like to bring the two young ones with you…" Alfred walked by the gym doors, trailing off as he went to take care of something.

Dick ran and slid in front of Sarah to tell her. Sarah faltered and took a step back so not to cartwheel into him. She gave him a smile before she noticed his worried expression.

"Dick, are you alright?" Sarah rotated her shoulders. She pulled her hair loose from the hair tie and ran her fingers through her hair. "I can't remember when I started in here. When did you get home?" Sarah turned and began to drink from a water bottle on the side of the gym.

"About two hours ago."

Sarah looked down at her watch and made a surprised expression as she drank.

"Alfred has supper ready, so save some room."

Sarah giggled as she set the bottle down, they walked out together. Sarah took a long whif. "Mmm, chicken alfredo." Sarah became sober. "Dick, I think I should have someone that I tell everything to, besides Batman."

"Sarah, are you okay?"

"I think I'm stable." Sarah stopped next to Dick.

He watched her carefully.

"I don't know if Bruce told you, but I've learned that my birth father is Daemon, my birth mother is Lilith, and Felix wanted to control me to get revenge. I'm not sure what is the truth and what are lies."

"Miss Sarah, if I may?" Alfred came out of the dining room and gave a slight bow. "When told a lie enough times, you believe it to be true. When you believe it to be truth you live by it. So if you believe that it's true that you don't need sleep to function, then you act on it and force your body to function on no sleep."

Sarah blinked and began to process what he had said as she sat down at the table. "So you think that everything Felix told me were lies?"

"I think you should forget everything he told you and rediscover yourself."

"_Okay, forget everything Felix told me. What do I _know_? I have wings, black, feathered, wings that I can sprout with a wingspan longer than my arm span. I have a glamour that changes what I look like, but doesn't change my height, sex, or age. Daemon is my birth… wait. I don't _know_ that he is my father, I wonder if he would agree to a DNA test?"_

"_You're kidding me? The very first glamour you took on looks exactly like him, right down to the dark blue eyes." _It sounded as if someone were shaking their finger at Sarah.

"_What was that?"_ Sarah glanced around the room, only using her eyes.

"_I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm the voice in your head that knows you through and through."_

"_How do I not know that I'm hearing voices?" _Sarah imagined a small person inside her head offering a hand to shake.

"_I don't know. Think of me as another you, but more willing to state the utter truth of your feelings."_ The voice made a sound like it was sticking out their tongue.

"_Why did you show up now?"_

"_I don't know."_

Sarah could almost hear the shrugging of shoulders in the voice. _"What use are you then?"_

"_Company."_

Sarah smiled at the teasing tone in the voice. _"What do I call you?"_

"_My name is Sassy."_

"_Okay, Sassy, there are going to be some rules in my head." _ Sarah almost rolled her eyes at herself. _"First, don't talk while other people are talking to me. Second, don't talk to me unless I tell you otherwise."_

"_Okay." _Sassy sounded a little sad. _"Can I talk to you now?"_

"_After supper."_

"_Okay."_ Sarah could almost hear the patter of feet and the click of a door. _"Weird. I wonder if she popped up when I needed to rediscover myself."_

Sarah glanced over at Jay, standing at the door, staring ahead. She wondered if all demons had a voice in their head they could converse with.

**Real sorry about how late this is going up. I would of updated on Monday, but I was shaken up from going in the ditch during the blizzard. I'm fine now and here's the chapter.**


	25. Posion

Sarah felt her watch vibrating; she dropped her fork and pushed away from the table. Dick and Bruce were getting up too. "Who do you think it is?" Sarah followed them through the secret door in the study.

"Probably the Riddler. The Joker is in Arkham." Dick slipped into a room to change.

"I bet it's Poison Ivy, she escaped a few days ago." Sarah stepped out as she finished clasping the hook at the back of her neck. Her suit allowed for her upper back to be completely bare for her wings.

"She wouldn't cause trouble so soon after getting out." Dick put his mask in place.

"Well, then. What about Two Face?" Sarah twisted her hair up out of the way as it changed color. It shone purple black. Her eyes went out of focus then refocused as they turned sapphire blue.

"Robbery at the Gotham Bank."

Sarah and Dick turned quickly to see Batman in the batmobile. They sprinted over and settled in, Dick in the front seat, Sarah in the back.

"Security cameras have been taken down. Robin, you'll have the basement. I'll take the main floor. Shadow Gale, you have the roof."

Shadow nodded as she fingered her dog tags. The warm buzz of electricity ran through her arm and settled against her wings. She stretched her wings as far as they would go in the car. She brought her feet up onto the seat, so she was in a crouch position. The car opened up and she sprang from her seat and took to the air. She came to a halt as she surveyed the bank. Ivy covered the walls of the bank, which was normal on the alley side, not the front of the brick building. It was so thick that the building almost looked like a bush. "A little over zealous."

"She wants our attention." Robin stood in his black short-sleeve suit, red vest, black gloves, black boots, and black cape with yellow lining. He rested a hand on his utility belt.

"I'll check out the roof." Shadow rose a few feet as she tugged at her boots and did a final check on her own utility belt. Her two middle fingers were gray and lines of gray traveled from those fingers up her arms and met at her collar bone. The dark red seemed black in the dim light.

"Stay here. Robin and I will go through the skylight. Come after us in two minutes."

Shadow crossed her arms and drifted down to stand on the roof of the mobile as Batman and Robin made their way in. "When am I ever the plan B?" She frowned as she watched the two disappear. She felt something snake across her foot. She glanced down and saw vines creeping across her feet. She kicked them off and took to the air. She beat her wings hard to push the vines off of the vehicle as she took off. A vine tightened around her ankle, she pulled away, snapping the plant. Another curled around her left wrist, she pulled her arm across her body. Every time she snapped one vine, two or three snared her somewhere else. Shadow grunted as her arms were brought behind her back, her ankles snared together and her wings were bound together.

"Well, well. Isn't this a sight?"

Shadow struggled as she saw the redhead.

"What would your mother say to hanging out with masked superheroes?" Ivy stepped forward and touched Shadow's cheek briefly. "Out at all hours of the night. Doesn't she love you?" Ivy pulled back from Sarah. "Such grim determination in your eyes. Surely you aren't Batman's daughter. How can your father let you run around with such dangers?" Shadow refused to flinch as Ivy took her face in her hands and examined it. "Usually, you are slicing through my vines by now." Ivy smiled. Shadow's fingers flipped open a small blade and held it ready in one hand.

"Where's Batman & Robin?"

"They're occupied." Ivy's fingers trailed down Shadow's neck, vines began to curl around, making a noose. "Gotham will doubt Batman when one of his sidekicks is found strangled."

Shadow heaved her shoulders up, slicing through the bindings on her arms and wings. She slashed the top vine around her legs, kicked free, grabbed hold of the vines around her neck, broke the fresh growth, and kicked Ivy in the middle. Shadow took to the air and crashed through the skylight, she landed on one knee among the glass shards. Batman and Robin stood dazed, glittery purple-pink powder lay on the ground around them.

"Stupid, heating of men's blood powder." Shadow muttered to herself as she rummaged in her belt and produced two needles. She beat her wings hard to create a wind, the powder swirled and scattered. Shadow then administered the antidote to Robin and Batman.

Robin chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. Batman grunted and went outside.

"Shadow, what did she say to you?"

"Nothing." She waved him off and rose off the floor as she put her arms around his middle and carried him out above Ivy and Batman, who were both engaged in hand to hand combat. "Shall I drop you on top of her?"

Batman latched a handcuff onto one of Ivy's wrists; he turned her using her arm and brought her other wrist down to be handcuffed.

"Never mind." Shadow growled as she set Robin down on the ground. She walked over to be in front of Poison Ivy. "You're such a mother dog."

"At least I had a mother."

Shadow brought her arm back and landed her fist against Ivy's temple. Ivy slumped in Batman's arms.

"We'll talk about this after we get back to the cave." Batman turned toward the red and blue flashing lights that were coming. "Get inside."

Shadow grumbled to herself as she got into the back seat, her wings now gone.

"Shadow what's wrong? You don't normally act like this."

"What do I normally act like?" She uncrossed her arms, leaned her elbows on her knees , and looked up at Robin.

"Passive."

Shadow quirked a brow at him. "She taunted me about my parents."

Robin flinched. "The public isn't going to act well to the idea of a demon princess as a superhero."

Shadow raised her brow again, then she sighed and slumped against the back seat.

"Let everyone think that you're half angle half human. It won't hurt them."

Shadow and Robin stiffened and turned toward Batman. He started the car and left for the cave.

"I'll let the ones who need to know, know. And Shadow, don't let your emotions get the best of you again."

"I know." Shadow sighed, she pulled out a small tablet from her belt, and she messaged Jay.

_Does there happen to be a voice in your head?_

_There's one for every demon. It's like an imaginary friend/conscience. It tells you things that you aren't willing to admit to yourself._

Shadow rolled her eyes and thought, "Great."

_I'll answer more questions when you get back._

Shadow put her tablet away and reversed her glamour as they entered the cave. She peeled off her gloves and kicked off her boots as she left the car.

"You two get some sleep." Batman pushed back his cowl. They changed quickly and headed for their rooms.

"I'm always getting caught." Sarah muttered as she worked her fingers into fists and relaxing them.

"You're pretty good at escaping." Dick put a hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged off his hand. "I'm always missing the action."

"No, you're not. Ivy might of won if you hadn't of gotten out."

"Pfft. Batman would have found a way out." Sarah put a hand on the railing and started up the stairs. "I should probably just quit."

"Don't say that. You just need some answers about your past, then you'll be able to focus." Dick gave her a side hug before he slipped off to his room.

Sarah paused outside her door, Jay stood at the door, he turned to look at her. She leaned her back against the hall and put her hands in her pockets. "So, when was I born?"

"April 1st at 12:00 a.m."

"That's what Felix told me." Sarah glanced up at him, suspicion in her eyes.

"You can ask your father."

Sarah glanced down at the floor; she bit her bottom lip and formed her next question. "Where was I born?"

"Germany."

"Where is my mother from?" After no response, Sarah elaborated. "Where is Natasha from?"

"I assume Italy, where I was first able to locate you."

"_Not a defendant answer, he's not playing from a script."_

"_Hush, Sassy."_

"How was Felix able to take me, If I'm the demon princess, shouldn't there've been a guard?"

"About that." Jay's stance relaxed, he nervously rubbed his neck and looked at her. "It was my fault. He had someone else working for him, causing a distraction. I should of stayed with you and your nurse, but I went to help."

"So searching for me and guarding me is penance for that time?"

Jay shrugged, "Daemon wants his right hand guarding his most precious treasure."

The weight of those words settled uneasily with Sarah. "I'm not sure I understand."

"A daughter is the apple of a father's eye. Not that Daemon would ever admit it, he doesn't talk about his feelings, he's really duty driven."

Sarah rubbed her head. _"Is it true?"_

"_Why not?"_

"_Sassy, I don't know."_ Sarah slid down to the floor with her knees drawn in and her head resting on them. _"I guess I haven't really had a good example of a father."_

"_Now, now. Felix wasn't bad before he came out all evil and such. John Grayson was good to you." _Sassy reasoned.

"_How do you know about him?" _Sarah had just a small moment of panic.

"_I _am_ you." _Sassy was indignant.

"_Okay, okay! But Felix tried to kill me."_ Sarah threw back at her voice.

"_Toche."_ Sassy had a little laugh.

"_I should probably sleep on it." _Sarah thought wearily.

"_Okay, but we should talk about why Poison Ivy's words bothered you so much."_ Sassy piped up.

"_What are you?" _ It was Sarah's turn to be indignant.

"_I am the voice that asks the common sense questions, I give the duh responses, I talk about what you don't want to, I give you raw truth and feelings." _ Sassy gave a 'hmpf' sound.

"_Okay, okay."_ Sarah soothed.

"Maybe you should go to bed."

Sarah looked up at Jay and nodded.

**Hey, sorry this is late. I've been really busy. Sassy, I feel, is the character that asks the questions from the fans. Like, "What in the world are you doing and why are you doing it?"**


	26. Sparing

April 4th 2010 Sunday

Sarah opened her eyes, her lashes scraped against her pillow. She propped herself up on her left elbow, the room was still dark, a sliver of moonlight shone between the curtains. She turned to look at the alarm clock on her nightstand.

"3:55"

Sarah rolled out of bed and glanced at the door; a shadow came into the sliver of light from the hall and stayed. Jay was ready for the day. Sarah took a cold shower to wake up and dressed in her work out clothes before her alarm for 4 o'clock went off. She clicked it off and brushed her wet hair into a ponytail. She then went to the gym.

Sarah stood in front of the dummy; she started with a punch to the middle, then block to the left, turn and block to the right.

"Do you ever practice with someone else?"

"Course I do." Sarah didn't turn to look at Jay. She landed two more blows then she threw in a block. "Usually it's Dick." Sarah turned to see that Jay had taken off his suit coat. "You're kidding me. I don't know what training you've had." Sarah turned back to the dummy and threw some more blows.

"What better way to find out?"

Sarah sighed; she turned and joined Jay on the mats. She watched him, allowing him the first move. He threw a punch; she turned aside and let it miss. He was too close for another attack; Sarah grabbed his left wrist with her left hand and pulled it to her left side as she brought up a kick to his head with her right foot. His right hand turned and snagged her ankle before it struck. He grinned at her, and then she threw her body weight, twisting to the left. She followed through twisting out of his grasp; she rolled out of the way of his fall. One knee was tucked under her, the other straight out, and her hands were flat out on the mat as she watched him roll over and struggle to get up. As he stood, she ran over and pulled his feet from under him as she ducked a swing. He fell flat on his face; he pushed himself up into a pushup position. Sarah watched him from behind, suddenly he disappeared. She felt arms wrap around her neck, she struck with her elbow, pulled an arm off of her neck and heaved her shoulder under his. She rolled him off of her back and over her shoulder, she barely escaped his weight.

"How did you do that?" Sarah panted, she watched Jay, who was on his back. He tipped his head to look up at her.

He chuckled before he answered. "Each demon has a gift, you could say. Mine is teleporting, yours is glamour."

"What about my father?"

"His is fire."

Sarah rubbed her chin as she thought. "If you can teleport, why couldn't you help me any of the times I was in trouble?"

Jay's smile fell from his face as he started to get up. "I wasn't to show my face to you until your thirteenth birthday."

"That's convenient." The sarcasm was heavy as Sarah turned back to the dummy then glanced back at Jay. "I'm usually in here until seven, do you think you can take it that long?"

"The training or being the brunt of your frustration of something you won't admit just yet?"

Sarah let a small smile form on her lips. "Your choice."

"Okay." Jay shrugged and glanced around the gym. "Let's do it."

"Good morning."

Sarah smiled as she settled at the breakfast bar; she flinched as she took a deep breath of the kitchen aroma. Alfred placed a plate of eggs, toast, and bacon in front of her. He looked at her with concern.

"It's just a bruise, on my ribs."

"How would you get bruised training by yourself?"

Sarah stopped with her fork midway between her plate and her mouth. "Jay joined me."

"Where is Master Jay now?"

Sarah flinched and swallowed her bite. "I sprained his wrist. He's fixing it up."

"You're training for the real thing, not doing the real thing."

Sarah turned to see Bruce walk in.

"What are you doing up this early?" He sat down on the other side of the breakfast bar.

"Barbra and I are going shopping, an apology to scaring her." Sarah scooped up some eggs.

"Shopping as Sarah Haven ward of Bruce Wayne?" Bruce took a cup of coffee from Alfred.

"Sarah Haven ward of Bruce Wayne, ever on top of what's in fashion." Sarah made a face of disgust then finished up her breakfast.

Sarah opened the back door of the car for Barbra, and then she slid back over to her side. She wore a white lace long sleeve shirt, a denim mini skirt, leggings, and black boots. Her hair was curled and she had eye shadow and lip gloss on.

"You ready to hit the mall?" Barbara slid into her seat and clicked on her belt.

"Totally!" Sarah grinned and giggled. "I've heard there's a new boutique at the mall."

Jay put the car in drive and pulled out into traffic.

"I wonder if it has anything cute?" Barbra looked through her wallet. "I have to deposit a check for Dad, when we're done shopping."

"Sure thing." Sarah grew sober. "Barbra, I'm sorry for scaring you and I would like to be friends with you."

Barbra smiled at her. "Forgiven, let's go give Bruce Wayne a nice sized bill."

Sarah giggled slightly and smiled at Barbra.

"Have you thought about a dress for Bruce's birthday bash this year?" Barbra shifted through some dresses on display.

"Not really." Sarah glanced over at Barbra, from looking at bejeweled headbands.

"What about this one?" Barbra held up a black highlow with three layers of skirt, a strapless sweetheart neckline, embroidery of peacock feathers and blue, white, and gold jewels.

"It's nice," Sarah pulled out her phone and took a photo of it. "Bruce insists on having one custom made every year." Sarah turned and held up another dress. It was floor length, A-line, black velvet, with gold lace over lay that formed a collar. Sarah snapped a photo of it.

"Why don't you get both and wear them to other high society parties? Even if it's only to show off a new dress." Barbra began to pick out a few blouses to try on. Sarah bit her lip, she knew that her secret identity was 'Sarah Haven ward of Bruce Wayne who is always at the head of fashion' To keep up the act she would have to run up a high bill. "I'm going to try these on." Barbra held up a few blouses and headed for the changing rooms. Sarah turned and glanced at a few other dresses. A blue ball gown, with a sweetheart neckline starting out silver and fading into the blue skirt, caught her eye.

In the end Sarah left with the three dresses, a dark blue denim jacket, a dark gray zip up hoodie, a dozen camisoles, four new pairs of shoes, and two headbands. Barbra left with a few new blouses and a new purse.

"I'll go with you." Sarah slipped out of the car and ran after Barbra, into the bank, leaving Jay in the car.

Together they walked up the marble steps, past the stone lions, through the mahogany French doors, over the mosaic floor, under the high arched ceiling, and up to the ornately carved front desk. "Gotham's finest." Sarah muttered as she hung back and looked around. She noticed that the skylight was still being repaired. She pulled her jacket closer as she felt a chill. "I hate being cold." Sarah watched her breath turn white in the air. She began to look around when the sound of cracking ice filled her ears. Barbra ran to her side and they ducked behind a pillar. Sarah hated clinging to Barbra and hiding, she wanted to be out there kicking Freeze's butt, but she was Sarah Haven, not Shadow Gale. She pushed a call button on her watch for Jay and waited. Ice formed around the pillar, Sarah stumbled back with Barbra. Sarah tripped and they both fell on the floor, Freeze eyed Sarah. His eyes narrowed and he frowned, before he grabbed the bag of money that the tiller had filled and ran out of the building. Barbra got up and began to phone her dad; she put a hand over her ear and walked away. Sarah felt the com in her ear come to life.

"Sarah, what happened?"

"Freeze robbed the bank after Barbra deposited a check for her dad."

"Is Jay there?"

Sarah glanced up and saw Jay entering the building quickly coming to her side. "Jay is here, I'm fine." The concern in his eyes was evident.

**So, I meant for this to be updated on Monday, sorry. I'm wondering about ending the story, it must not be good if 400+ people from the United States, alone, read it and not one leaves a review on the previous chapter.**


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